LIEUTENANT-GENERAL W. J. HARDEE, C. S. A.
From a photograph.
half a mile. He was about to charge again, when General Johnston came up, and moved him to the right, and brought John K. Jackson’s brigade into the interval. Prentiss’s left and Stuart’s brigade retreated sullenly, not routed, but badly hammered.
With Hindman as a pivot, the turning movement began from the moment of the overthrow of Prentiss’s camps. While the front attacks were made all along the line with a desperate courage which would have swept any ordinary resistance from the field, and with a loss which told fearfully on the assailants, they were seconded by assaults in flank which invariably resulted in crushing the Federal line with destructive force and strewing the field with the wounded and the dead. The Federal reports complain that they were flanked and outnumbered, which is true; for, though fewer, the Confederates were probably stronger at every given point throughout the day except at the center called the “Hornets’ Nest,” where the Federáis eventually massed nearly two divisions. The iron flail of war beat upon the Federal front and right flank with the regular and ponderous pulsations of some great engine, and these assaults resulted in a crumbling process which was continually but slowly going on, as regiment and brigade and division yielded to the continuous and successive blows. There has been criticism that there were no grand assaults by divisions and corps. In a broken, densely wooded and unknown country, and with the mode of attack in parallel lines, this was impossible, but the attack was unremitting and the fact is that there were but few lulls in the contest. The fighting was a grapple and a death-struggle all day long, and, as one brigade after another wilted before the deadly fire of the stubborn Federáis, still another was pushed into the combat and kept up the fierce assault. A breathing-spell, and the shattered command would gather itself up and resume its work of destruction. These were the general aspects of the battle.
When the battle began Hindman, following the
CONFEDERATE TYPE OF 1862.
“ Note the hour, if you please, gentlemen,” said General Johnston. It was fourteen minutes past 5. They immediately mounted and galloped to the front.
Some skirmishing on Friday between the Confederate cavalry and the Federal outposts, in which a few men were killed, wounded, and captured on both sides, had aroused the vigilance of the Northern commanders to some extent. Sherman reported on the 5th to Grant that two regiments of infantry and one of cavalry were in his front, and added: “ I have no doubt that nothing will occur to-day more than some picket firing. . . . I do not apprehend anything like an attack on our position.” In his “ Memoirs ” he says : “I did not believe they designed anything but a strong demonstration.” He said to Major Bicker that an advance of Beauregard’s army “ could not be possible. Beauregard was not such a fool as to leave his base of operations and attack us in ours — mere reconnaissance in force.” This shows a curious coincidence with the actual state of General Beauregard’s mind on that day. And Grant telegraphed Halleck on Saturday night: “The main force of the enemy is at Corinth. . . . One division of Buell’s column arrived yesterday. ... I have scarcely the faintest idea of an attack (general one) being made upon us.”
Nevertheless, some apprehension was felt among the officers and men of the Federal army, and General Prentiss had thrown forward Colonel Moore, with the 21st Missouri regiment, on the Corinth road. Moore, feeling his way cautiously, encountered Hardee’s skirmish-line under Major Hard-castle, and, thinking it an outpost, assailed it vigorously. Thus really the Federáis began the fight. The struggle was brief, but spirited. The 8th and 9th Arkansas came up. Moore fell wounded. The Missourians gave way, and Shaver’s brigade pursued them. Hindman’s whole division moved on, following the ridge and drifting to the right, and drove in the grand guards and outposts until they struck Prentiss’s camps. Into these they burst, overthrowing all before them.
WOUNDED AND STRAGGLERS ON THE WAY TO THE LANDING, AND AMMUNITION-WAGONS GOING TO THE FRONT.
almost only, censure of this plan was made by Colonel Jordan, confidential adviser and historian of General Beauregard, who now claims to have made this plan. The instructions delivered to General Johnston’s subordinates on the previous day were found sufficient for their conduct on the battle-field. But, to accomplish this, his own personal presence and inspiration and direction were often necessary with these enthusiastic but raw troops. He had personal conference on the field with most of his generals, and led several brigades into battle. The criticism upon this conduct, that he exposed himself unnecessarily, is absurd to those who know how important rapid decision and instantaneous action are in the crisis of conflict.
His lines of battle were pushed rapidly to the front, and as gaps widened in the first lines, they were filled by brigades of the second and third. One of Breckinridge’s brigades (Trabue’s) was sent to the left to support Cleburne and fought under Polk the rest of the day ; and the other two were led to the extreme right, only Chalmers being beyond them. Gladden, who was on Hindman’s right, and had a longer distance to traverse to strike some of Prentiss’s brigades further to the left, found them better prepared, but, after a sanguinary resistance, drove them from their camps. In this bitter struggle Gladden fell mortally wounded. Chalmers’s brigade, of Bragg’s line, came in on Gladden’s right, and his Mississippians drove the enemy, under Stuart, with the bayonet
To appreciate the suddenness and violence of the blow, one must read the testimony of eye-witnesses. General Bragg says, in a sketch of Shiloh made for the writer: “Contrary to the views of such as urged an abandonment of the attack, the enemy was found utterly unprepared, many being surprised and captured in their tents, and others, though on the outside, in costumes better fitted to the bedchamber than to the battle-field.” General Preston says: “ General Johnston then went to the camp assailed, which was carried between 7 and 8 o’clock. The enemy were evidently surprised. The breakfasts were on the mess tables, the baggage unpacked, the knapsacks, stores, colors, and ammunition abandoned.”
The essential feature of General Johnston’s strategy had been to get at his enemy as quickly as possible, and in as good order. In this he had succeeded. His plan of battle was as simple as his strategy. It had been made known in his order of battle, and was thoroughly understood by every brigade commander. The orders of the 3d of April were, that “every effort should be made to turn the left flank of the enemy, so as to cut off his line of retreat to the Tennessee Biver and throw Mm hack on Owl Creek, where he will he obliged to surrender.” It is seen that, from the first, these orders were carried out in letter and spirit; and, so long as General Johnston lived, the success of this movement was complete. The battle was fought precisely as it was planned. The first, and