MAJOR-GENERAL B. M. PRENTISS, U. S. V.
that would redound to the credit of his command, as well as to the benefit of his country.
Shiloh was a log meeting-house, some two or three miles from Pittsburg Landing, and on the ridge which divides the waters of Snake and Lick creeks, the former entering into the Tennessee just north of Pittsburg Landing, and the latter south. Shiloh was the key to our position, and was held by Sherman. His division was at that time wholly raw, no part of it ever having been in an engagement, but I thought this deficiency was more than made up by the superiority of the commander. McClernand was on Sherman’s left, with troops that had been engaged at Fort Donelson, and were therefore veterans so far as Western troops had become such at that stage of the war. Next to McClernand came Prentiss, with a raw division, and on the extreme left, Stuart, with one brigade of Sherman’s division. Hurlbut was in rear of Prentiss, massed, and in reserve at the time of the onset. The division of General C. F. Smith was
PITTSBURG LANDING.
mjm ^ a ' 1( i I w 11' fr! is! t 11׳ }■ I«,:JrSs¿4 1! ־		j	
[■xfefTÄ, •־■• 1- 1 J;		|\> r '!׳xP111 !)״״	
		aTft^s kI' LI!	
committed on the 6th of April, 1862.* I presume his idea was that by taking the route he did, he would be able to come around on the flank or rear of the enemy, and thus perform an act of heroism
The mistake he made, and which probably caused his apparent dilatoriness, was that of advancing some distance after he found that the tiring, which would be at first directly to his front and then off to the left, had fallen back until it had got very much in rear of the position of his advance. This falling back had taken place before I sent General Wallace orders to move up to Pittsburg Landing, and, naturally, my order was to follow the road nearest the river. But my order was verbal, and to a staff-officer who was to deliver it to General Wallace, so that I am not competent to say just what order the general actually received.
General Wallace’s division was stationed, the First Brigade at Crump’s Landing, the Second out two miles, and the Third two and a half miles out. Hearing the sounds of battle, General Wallace early ordered his First and Third brigades to concentrate on the Second. If the position of our front had not changed, the road which Wallace took would have been somewhat shorter to our right than the River road.	U. S. Grant.
Mount McGregor, N. Y., June 21, 1885.
In a letter to General Grant, written Sept. 16,1884, General Wallace said, in part: * ‘ The fact is, I was the victim of a mistake. Captain Baxter’s omission from the order you gave him for transmission to me — the omission of the road you wanted me to take in coming up, viz., the lower or River Road to Pittsburg Landing — was the cause of my movement at noon. It is also the key of explanation of all that followed. That I took the directest and shortest road to effect a junction with the right of the army, and marched promptly upon receipt of the order, are the best evidence I could have furnished of an actual desire to do my duty, and share the fortunes of the day with you, whether they were good or bad.”
ing by what route. His was one of three veteran divisions that had been in battle, and its absence was severely felt. Later in the war, General Wallace would never have made the mistake that he
* Since the publication in “ The Century ” of my article on “ The Battle of Shiloh ” I have received from Mrs. W. H. L. Wallace, widow of the gallant general who was killed in the first day’s fight of that battle, a letter from General Lew Wallace to him, dated the morning of the 5th. At the date of this letter it was well known that the Confederates had troops out along the Mobile and Ohio railroad west of Crump’s Landing and Pittsburg Landing, and were also collecting near Shiloh. This letter shows that at that time General Lew Wallace was making preparations for the emergency that might happen for the passing of reinforcements between Shiloh and his position, extending from Crump’s Landing westward; and he sends the letter over the road running from Adamsville to the Pittsburg Landing and Purdy road. These two roads intersect nearly a mile west of the crossing of the latter over Owl Creek, where our right rested. In this letter General Lew Wallace advises General W. H. L. Wallace that he will send “to-morrow” (and his letter also says “ April 5th,” which is the same day the letter was dated and which, therefore, must have been written on the 4th) some cavalry to report to him at his headquarters, and suggesting the propriety of General W. H. L. Wallace’s sending a company back with them for the purpose of having the cavalry at the two landings familiarize themselves with the road, so that they could “ act promptly in case of emergency as guides to and from the different camps.”
This modifies very materially what I have said, and what has been said by others, of the conduct of General Lew Wallace at the battle of Shiloh. It shows that he naturally, with no more experience than he had at the time in the profession of arms, would take the particular road that he did start upon in the absence of orders to move by a different road.
MAJOR-GEN. THOMAS L. CRITTENDEN, U. S. Y.
MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS J. WOOD, U. S. Y.
and farther from Pittsburg by several miles than when he started. The road from his first position was direct, and near the river. Between the two points a bridge had been built across Snake Creek by our troops, at which Wallace’s command had assisted, expressly to enable the troops at the two places to support each other in case of need. Wallace did not arrive in time to take part in the first day’s fight. General Wallace has since claimed that the order delivered to him by Captain Baxter was simply to join the right of the army, and that the road over which he marched would have taken him to the road from Pittsburg to Purdy, where it crosses Owl Creek, on the right of Sherman; but this is not where I had ordered him nor where I wanted him to go. I never could see, and do not now see, why any order was necessary further than to direct him to come to Pittsburg Landing, without specify-