Soldiers—Your late Commander-in-Chief, A. S. Johnston, is dead. A fearless soldier, a sagacious captain, a reproachless man has fallen. One who in his devotion to our cause shrunk from no sacrifice; one who, animated by a sense of duty and sustained by a sublime courage, challenged danger and perished gallantly for his country while leading forward his columns to victory. His signal example of heroism and patriotism, if generally imitated, will make this army invincible. A grateful country will mourn his loss, revere his name, and cherish his many virtues. OR 10, pt. 2, 408.
2 Roman, Beauregard, 1: 297, 298; Battles and Leaders, 1: 590; Williams, P. G. T. Beauregard, 140. Johnston’s biographer, Charles Roland, suggested that the Confederate army suffered a serious loss of momentum, in part due to the disheartening news of Johnston’s death as it spread across the field. Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston, 341, 342. || Dr. Cunningham was the first to question the Lost Cause idea that a lull occurred when Johnston died. Sword, Shiloh, 310, and Daniel, Shiloh, 235, both claim a lull developed. McDonough, Shiloh, 154-155, argues that there was no lull following Johnston’s death.
3 OR 10, pt. 1, 496.
4 Barber, Army Memoirs, 54; Bacon, Thrilling Adventures, 6.
5 Bering and Montgomery, Forty-eighth Ohio, 21, 22.
6 Crummer, With Grant at Fort Donelson, 64, 65.
7 Ibid., 65.
8 OR 10, pt. 1, 134.
9 Duke, Fifty-third Ohio, 49. || Dr. Cunningham slightly misplaced this human interest story; according to the citation, it actually occurred a little earlier—on the Shiloh Church line.
10 Ibid., 52.
11 Orville J. Victor, Incidents and Anecdotes of the War(New York: James D. Torrey, 1862), 359.
12 OR 10, pt. 1, 582. || Dr. Cunningham’s original text in advertently left out the 23rd Tennessee, which Cleburne specifically noted joined in the attack. The 15th Arkansas advanced, but did not engage the enemy. OR 10, pt. 1, 582.
13 OR 10, pt. 1, 118.
14 Phil Bond to brother, April 23, 1862, in James G. Terry, “Record of the Alabama State Artillery from its Organization in May 1836 to the Surrender in April 1865,” The Alabama Historical Quarterly 20 (Summer 1958): 316; OR 10, pt. 1, 516, 517.
15 S. W. Ferguson to General Beauregard, April 6, 1862, Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park. In the above re port, Feguson said he commanded the advance on McClernand. Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Ro man stated flatly that he did not see the brigade commander on either day of the battle. Alfred Roman, “Memoirs of Shiloh,” Confederate Collection, Tennessee Department of Archives and History. Pond gave an entirely different version of it in his official report. He said he was ordered to attack the position by Ferguson, who gave the order by virtue of the authority of General Hardee. OR 10, pt. 1, 517. Ro man appended his name to an entirely different account of the action in his so-called biography of General Beauregard, which muddles the is sue even more. Beauregard cooperated so closely in writing the book that it became, in effect, an “official” biography with over tones of an autobiography. The practical effect was that the account is Beauregard’s own and not Ro man’s. This version stated that Beauregard was told by a staff officer that Pond’s Brigade was leaderless. The Creole promptly ordered Ferguson to go over and take charge. The account stated that Pond’s absence from the brigade was due to his undertaking a reconnaissance of the enemy’s position, but it did not mention who actually led the charge. Ro man, Beauregard, 1: 298. Sergeant L. M. Pipkin, the regimental quartermaster for the Sixth Louisiana, in a letter written half a century after the battle, confirmed Pond’s report of the action in al most every detail, stating that Lieu ten ant Colonel Ferguson merely brought the order. L. M. Pipkin to D. W. Reed, March 17, 1909, Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park. Pond was elected colonel of the Sixteenth Louisiana on September 26, 1861. He resigned on May 2, 1862. Booth, Louisiana Records, 3, 2: 169.
16 Warner, Generals in Gray, 87; OR 47, pt. 2, 1004-1012, 1027, 1028, 1127.
17 Cesar Porta to J. B. Wilkinson, n.d., 1862, Louisiana Historical Association Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University.
18 Order Book, Washington Artillery, Louisiana Historical Association Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University. See OR 10, pt. 1, 527.
19 OR 10, pt. 1, 527.
20 Ibid., 521; Cesar Porta to J. B. Wilkinson, n.d., 1862, Louisiana Historical Association Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University; Confederate Veteran 9 (August 1901): 499.
21 OR 10, pt. 1, 118; Cesar Porta to J. B. Wilkinson, n.d., 1862, Louisiana Historical Association Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University.
22 OR 10, pt. 1, 519. Captain Crain had one of the strangest careers of the Civil War. Shortly be fore the out break of war, he re signed from the U. S. Navy as a passed Midshipman. A native Louisianian, he enlisted in the First Infantry Battalion (First Battalion Louisiana). Enrolling as a private, he was soon promoted to a third lieutenant of Company D, July 20, 1861. Presumably he participated in the battalion’s move to Virginia, perhaps even in its first action at the Curtis Farm on July 5, 1861. On Au gust 24, 1861, he resigned from the battalion. Booth, Louisiana Records, 2: 472. On September 1, 1861, Crain was appointed captain of a battery of Tennessee light artillery, three guns. He was stationed at Memphis, Fort Henry, and Corinth, but for some reason the battery was disbanded in the latter part of March 1862. Serving as a rifleman in Pond’s Brigade, Crain was severely wounded on Monday. On April 12, less than a week after the bat tle, he re signed his commission. Tennesseans in the Civil War, 1: 129, 130. On May 25, 1863, Crain was appointed a lieutenant in the Confederate navy and was as signed to the partially constructed iron clad Missouri. George I. Ness, Jr., “Louisiana Officers of the Confederate Navy,” Louisiana Historical Quarterly 27 (April 1944): 483. On June 2, 1864, Crain was appointed a first lieu tenant in the navy to rank from January 6, 1864. He served at Shreve port, Louisiana. His where abouts during the last few months of the war are un known, but he was paroled on June 3, 1865, at Alexandria, Louisiana. Booth, Louisiana Records, 2: 472; Ness, “Louisiana Officers of the Confederate Navy,” 483.
23 Roman, “Memoirs of Shiloh,” Confederate Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives; Roman, Beauregard, 1: 298. Roman said the time was about 5 P. M. McClernand gave the time as 4:30 p.m. OR 10, pt. 1, 118.
24 Ibid.. 522.
25 Phil Jordan and Charles Thomas (eds.), “Reminiscences of an Ohio Volunteer,” Ohio Archaelogical and Historical Quarterly 48 (October 1939): 311; OR 10, pt. 1, 118.
26 Chamberlain, Eighty-first Regiment Ohio, 16; OR 10, pt. 1, 118; Ro man, “Memoirs of Shiloh,” Confederate Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives.
27 OR 10, pt. 1, 161, 461.
28 Ibid., 615, 616, 417, 118, 119, 124.
29 Ibid., 498.
30 Charles DePetz to wife, April 15, 1862, Clark, “The New Orleans Ger man Colony in the Civil War,” 1003, 1004.
31 OR 10, pt. 1, 498.
32 Ibid., 523; Phil Bond to brother, April 23, 1862, in Terry, “Record of the Alabama State Artillery,” 316, 317; Richardson, “War As I Saw It,” 495, 496; W. A. Howard to wife, April 9, 1862, Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park.
33 Phil Bond to brother, April 23, 1862, in Terry, “Record of the Alabama State Artillery,” 316, 317.
34 OR 10, pt. 1, 472; Charles Swett, “Memoirs,” Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park. General Daniel Ruggles seems to have acted on his own initiative in deciding on this massive barrage on the Un ion position.
35 OR 10, pt. 1, 472; Frank Peak, “A Southern Soldier’s View of the Civil War, “‘Frank Peak Papers, Louisiana State University Archives; S. H. Dent to wife, April 9, 1862, Shiloh-Corinth Collection, Alabama Department of Archives and History; Charles Swett, “Memoirs,” Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park. Major F. A. Shoup, on orders from General Hardee, massed twenty guns along the
Duncan Field to shell the Hornet’s Nest. Proclaiming it was his idea, by implication, he intimated that General Ruggles took credit for his idea. Hardee’s batteries did take part in this operation, and Major Shoup probably helped position them not realizing that Hardee’s orders were in response to General Ruggles’ request. F. A. Shoup, “The Art of War in ‘62—Shiloh,” 8, 9.
36 OR 10, pt. 1, 479; Frank Peak, “A Southern Soldier’s View of the Civil War,” Frank Peak Papers, Louisiana State University Archives; OR 10, pt. 1, 475.
37 OR 10, pt. 1, 472. In his re port General Ruggles listed a Captain Trabue’s Kentucky Battery as being in the line-up. There was no such unit at the Battle of Shiloh, but it is possible that Ruggles was referring to Cobb’s Kentucky Battery, of Trabue’s Brigade. This unit had taken a very bad beating a little earlier in the day from McClernand’s division, but it is possible that some of the battery’s guns might have been able to have taken part in this Duncan Field operation. The marker at Shiloh National Military Park states that there were sixty-two guns under General Ruggles’ direction firing into the Hornet’s Nest. The late Kenneth P. Williams accepted this figure. Williams, Lincoln Finds A General 3: 372, 373. T. Harry Williams mentioned that Ruggles “collected more than sixty pieces of artillery.” Williams, P. G. T. Beauregard, 140. See also, Eisenschiml, The Story of Shiloh, 38; Howard; Illustrated Comprehensive History of the Great Battle of Shiloh, 74. The commander of the Washington Artillery, W. Irving Hodgson, in his re port stated that his battery served on the left near Pond’s Brigade, but mentioned nothing about taking part in the mass bombardment of the Hornet’s Nest. OR 10, pt. 1, 54. The Order Book, Fifth Company, Washington Artillery, con firmed this, as does the letter of Richard Pugh to his wife written just after the battle. Order Book, Washington Artillery, Louisiana Historical Association Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University; Richard Pugh to wife, April 8, 1862, Richard Pugh Papers, Louisiana State University Archives. Two guns were detached to help support Colonel Trabue, and it is possible they may have ended up with General Ruggles’ line. Counting a section of pieces from Cobb’s Battery and the two possible ones from Hodgson’s Battery, makes a maximum total of fifty-one pieces in the Duncan Field position, according to General Ruggles’ listing of the units. || Dr. Cunningham was the first to question the 62 pieces of artillery deter mined by Shiloh Battle field Commission historian D. W. Reed. Sword, Shiloh, 326, sticks with the original 62 pieces, while Daniel, Shiloh, 229, argues there were 53.
38 || Dr. Cunningham was also the first to question the bombardment’s importance. Daniel, Shiloh, 230, follows Cunningham’s lead.
39 S. H. Dent to wife, April 9, 1862, Shiloh-Corinth Collection, Alabama Department of Archives and History.
40 Joseph E. Riley,” The Military Ser vice of Joseph E. Riley,” Joseph E. Riley Papers, Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park Archives.
41 OR 10, pt. 1, 428, 526, 448.
42 Samuel Latta to wife, April 12, 1862, Confederate Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives.
43 W. A. Howard to wife, April 12, 1862, Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park.
44 Throne, “Letters from Shiloh,” 244, 245.
45 De Hass, Annals of the War, 49. || Dr. Cunningham originally confused Powell’s movements, stating that he deployed behind Wallace’s line only around 3:30 to 4:00 p.m. Powell’s action in Duncan Field was as early as 9:30 a.m., where he lost one gun. He then moved to western Wicker Field, where he remained for about six hours. It was at Wicker Field that he lost his right arm. See Reed, Shiloh, 61; Shiloh Battlefield Commission Monument #43.
46 Unsigned sketch, “John W. Powell,” Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park.
47 OR 10, pt. 1, 204. | | Interestingly, Dr. Cunningham does not go into any detail regarding large scale troop movements that occurred at this time. With McArthur’s line giving way, Hurlbut pulled Lauman’s entire brigade out of line west of the Hamburg-Savannah Road and placed it in line east of the road. See Reed, Shiloh, 55.
48 Ibid., 259; Frank Peak, “A Southern Soldier’s View of the Civil War,” Prank Peak Papers, Louisiana State University Archives.
49 Kirkpatrick Scrapbook, Alabama Department of Archives and History; William Harvey Diary, April 6, 1862, Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park.
50 Kirkpatrick Scrapbook, Alabama Department of Archives and History.
51 William Harvey Diary, April 6, 1862, Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park; Reed, Shiloh, 18, 19, 50; OR 10, pt. 1, 204, 550.
52 Morrison, History of the Ninth Illinois, 30-32.
53 William Harvey Diary, April 6, 1862, Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park; OR 10, pt. 1, 219.
54 Grady McWhiney, “Braxton Bragg at Shiloh,” The Tennessee Historical Quarterly 21 (March 1962): 26. || Grady McWhiney, Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat: Volume 1, Field Command (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), 235.
55 OR 10, pt. 1, 417; Theodore Mandeville to Josephine Rozet, April 9, 1862, Theodore Mandeville Papers, Louisiana State University Archives.
56 Hugh Henry to mother, April 10, 1862, Shiloh-Corinth Collection, Alabama Department of Archives and History ; OR 10, pt. 1, 550.
57 OR 10, pt. 1, 166.
58 Ibid., 149; T. Lyle Dickey to his Aunt Ann, May 19, 1862, Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park.
59 OR 10, pt. 1, 149; John Mahon (ed.), “The Civil War Letters of Samuel Mahon, Seventh Iowa Infantry,” Iowa Journal of History 51 (July 1953): 238.
60 Cyrus Dickey to John J. Dickey, April 10, 1862, W. H. L. Wallace Papers, Illinois State Library and Archives. The musket ball entered above and behind the general’s left ear, and taking a slanting course, passed up and out his left eye. Ibid.; Wallace, Life and Letters of General W. H. L. Wallace, 196.
61 Thomas, Soldier Life.
62 OR 10, pt. 1, 550.
63 Thomas, Soldier Life.
64 Charles Swett, “The Battle of Shiloh,” Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park. A Confederate officer confirmed that some of his men kept on firing for a little while after the white flags were raised. Captain Robert H. Wood to his father, June 1, 1862, Robert H. Wood Papers, University of Tennessee Library.
65 Luther Jackson, “A Prisoner of War,” The Annals of Iowa 19 (July 1933): 24; OR 10, pt. 1, 154; Reed, Shiloh, 49; Thomas, Soldier Life; William Harvey Diary, April 6, 1862, Miscellaneous Collection, Shiloh National Military Park.
66 Throne, “Erastus Sarpers’ History of Company D, 12th Iowa Infantry, 1861-1866,” 181.
67 OR 10, pt. 1, 164.
68 Ibid., 101; Albert D. Richardson, The Secret Service, The Field, The Dungeon, and The Escape (Hartford: American Publishing Company, 1867), 239.
69 OR 10, pt. 1, 533, 550.
70 Ibid., 550, 104.
71 Ibid., 164; McElroy, Undying Procession, 25. The Eighth Iowa was part of Sweeny’s brigade, but he had ordered it over to assist General Prentiss a little before noon, and the regiment fought in the Hornet’s Nest until the order for the with drawal came. OR 10, pt. 1, 165, 166.
72 Bacon, Thrilling Adventures, 6; Theodore Mandeville to Josephine Rozet, April 9, 1862, Theodore Mandeville Papers, Louisiana State University Archives.
73 OR 10, pt. 1, 104, 105.
74 Private Theodore Mandeville, Crescent Regiment, said his regiment captured Prentiss. He said Colonel Smith personally received Prentiss’ sword. Theodore Mandeville to Josephine Rozet, April 9, 1862, Theodore Mandeville Papers, Louisiana State University Archives. This was confirmed by another Crescent enlisted man, Yves LeMonier, “Shiloh,” Louisiana Historical Association Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University. Another account said Prentiss surrendered to the Nineteenth Tennessee. Worsham, The Old Nineteenth Tennessee Regiment, C. S. A., 41.
75 Jackson, “A Prisoner of War,” 24; Joseph E. Riley, “The Military Ser vice of Joseph E. Riley,” Joseph E.
Riley Papers, Chickamauga-Chattanooga National Military Park Archives. A slightly different version by a member of the Crescent Regiment said Prentiss turned about to the screaming Confederates and said directly to the commanding officer, “Let them cheer, let them cheer, for they have, this day, captured the finest Brigade in the United States Army.” Yves LeMonier, “Shiloh,” Louisiana Historical Association Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University. Later on, by implication, Grant censored Prentiss for not retreating in time. Grant, Memoirs, 177. Grant’s admirer and biographer, Adam Badeau, went further and accused Prentiss of poor generalship. Badeau, Military History of Ulysses Grant, 83. These criticisms take little account of the problem of executing a with drawal in the face of an enemy not only in your front, but be hind you as well. There may have been a personal pique between Grant and Prentiss, for in September of the previous year, the two men were engaged in slight controversy over the question of rank. Prentiss lost the argument, and he left Cairo, Illinois, and went to St. Louis. Prentiss remarked to a war correspondent, “Yes, I have left, I will not serve under a drunkard.” Richardson, Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant, 184. Prentiss was soon as signed to another command, but the relationship probably remained strained.
76 Bell, Tramps and Triumphs, 17, 18.
Chapter 13
1|| Dr. Cunningham originally included a most unusual statement in this paragraph, claiming Webster built a line “of log and dirt breastworks in a semicircle around and across the Corinth Road, some two hundred yards out from the boat landing.” No evidence of a line of breastworks is available. In fact, only minor use of any type of fortification has ever been located. For example, Schwartz’s Battery piled up a small earthen rampart, and another battery apparently piled up sacks of corn. Out on the battlefield, Anderson’s Confederate brigade made a hasty breastwork of logs on the second day. Other than these specific examples, there is no evidence of battle-related earth works. Some post-battle entrenchments, however, still exist. We have slightly altered the text to reflect this. See Shiloh Battlefield Commission Tablets #57 and 361; Reed, Shiloh, 21.
Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 Page 44