PREACHING AT THE UNION CAMP DICK EOBINSON, KY. Sketched from a lithograph.
rest were either killed, wounded, captured, or scattered in inextricable and hopeless confusion for miles along the banks of the river.” General Nelson describes them as “ cowering under the river-bank, . . . frantic with fright and utterly demoralized.”
At this crisis came from General Beauregard an order for the withdrawal of the troops, of which his chief of staff says : “ General Beauregard, in the mean time, observing the exhausted, widely scattered condition of his army, directed it to be brought out of battle, collected and restored to order as far as practicable, and to occupy for the night the captured encampments of the enemy. This, however, had been done in chief part by the officers in immediate command of the troops before the order was generally distributed.” For this last allegation, or that the army was exhausted, there is not the slightest warrant. When Beauregard’s staff-officer gave Bragg this order he said: “Have you promulgated this order to the command ?” The offi-eerreplied: “Ihave.” General Bragg then said: “If you had not I would not obey it. The battle is lost."
The concurrent testimony of the generals and soldiers at the front is at one on all essential points. General Beauregard at Shiloh, two miles in the rear, with the débris of the army surging back upon him, the shells bursting around him, sick with his two months’ previous malady, pictured in his imagination a wreck at the front, totally different from the actual condition there. Had this officer been with Bragg, and not greatly prostrated and suffering from severe sickness, I firmly believe his order would have been to advance, not to retire. And this in spite of his theory of his plan of battle, which he sums up as follows, and which is so different from General Johnston’s: “By a rapid and vigorous attack on General Grant, it was expected he would be beaten back into his transports and the river, or captured in time to enable us to profit by the victory, and remove to the rear all the stores
they drove some gunners from their guns, and their attaek has been generally mistaken by Federal writers for the final assault of the Confederate army—which was never made. The Federal generals and writers attribute their salvation to the repulse of Chalmers, and the honor is claimed respectively for Webster’s artillery and for Ammen’s brigade of Buell’s army, which came up at the last moment. But neither they nor all that was left of the Federal army could have withstood five minutes the united advance of the Confederate line, which was at hand and ready to deal the death-stroke. Their salvation came from a different quarter. Bragg, in his monograph written for the use of the writer in preparing the “Life of A. S. Johnston,” gives the following account of the close of the battle:
“ Concurring testimony, especially that of the prisoners on hotli sides,—our captured being present and witnesses to the demoralization of the enemy, and their eagerness to escape or avoid further slaughter by surrender,—left no doubt but that a persistent, energetic assault would soon have been crowned by a general yielding of his whole force. About one hour of daylight was left to us. The enemy’s gun-boats, his last hope, took position opposite us in the river, and commenced a furious cannonade at our supposed position. Prom the elevation necessary to reach the high bluff on which we were operating, this proved all ‘ sound and fury signifying nothing,’ and did not in the slightest degree mar our prospects or our progress. Not so, however, in our rear, where these heavy shells fell among the reserves and stragglers; and to the utter dismay of the commanders on the field, the troops were seen to abandon their inspiring work, and to retire sullenly from the contest when danger was almost past, and victory, so dearly purchased, was almost certain.”
Polk, Hardee, Breckinridge, Withers, Gibson, Gilmer, and all who were there confirm this statement. General Buell says of Grant’s army that there were ‘ ‘ not more than five thousand men in ranks and available on the battle-field at nightfall. . . . The
BIRTHPLACE OF ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, WASHINGTON, KY.
Prom a photograph.
and munitions that would fall into our hands in such an event before the arrival of General Buell’s army on the scene. It was never contemplated, however, to retain the position thus gained and abandon Corinth, the strategic point of the campaign." Why, then, did General Beauregard stop short in his career ? Sunday evening it was not a question of retaining, but of gaining, Pittsburg Landing. Complete victory was in his grasp, and he threw it away. General Gibson says: “ General Johnston’s death was a tremendous catastrophe. There are no words adequate to express my own conception of the immensity of the loss to our country. Sometimes the hopes of millions of people depend upon one head and one arm. The West perished with Albert Sidney Johnston, and the Southern country followed.” Monday was General Beauregard’s battle, and it was well fought. But in recalling his troops from the heights which commanded the enemy’s landing, he gave away a position which during the night was occupied by Buell’s twenty thousand fresh troops, who thus regained the high grounds that had been won at such a cost. Lew Wallace, too, had come up 6500 strong. Moreover, the orders had been conveyed by Beauregard’s staff to brigades and even regiments to withdraw, and the troops wandered back over the field, without coherence, direction, or purpose, and encamped where chance provided for them. All array was lost, and, in the morning, they met the attack of nearly thirty thousand fresh and organized troops, with no hope of success except from their native valor and the resolute purpose roused by the triumph of Sunday. Their fortitude, their courage, and the free offering of their lives were equal to the day before. But it was a retreat, not an assault. They retired slowly and sullenly, shattered, but not overthrown, to Corinth, the strategic point of General Beauregard!s campaign.
LIEUTENANT- GENERAL JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE, C. S. A. From a photograph.
These generals have received scant justice for their stubborn defense. They agreed to hold their position at all odds, and did so until Wallace received his fatal wound and Prentiss was surrounded and captured with nearly three thousand men. This delay was the salvation of Grant’s army.
General Breckinridge’s command closed in on the Federal left and rear; General Polk crushed their right center by the violence of his assault; and in person, with Marshall J. Smith’s Crescent regiment, received the surrender of many troops. General Prentiss gave up his sword to Colonel Bussell. Bragg’s troops, wrestling at the front, poured in over the “Hornets’ Nest,” and shared in the triumph. Polk ordered his cavalry to charge the fleeing enemy, and Colonel Miller rode down and captured a 6-gun battery. His men “ watered their horses in the Tennessee Biver.” All now felt that the victory was won. Bragg, Polk, Hardee, Breckinridge, all the corps commanders, were at the front, and in communication. Their generals were around them. The hand that had launched the thunder-bolt of war was cold, but its influence still nerved this host and its commanders. A line of battle was formed, and all was ready for the last fell swoop, to compel an ‘ ‘ unconditional surrender” by General Grant.
The only position on the high grounds left to the Federals was held by Colonel Webster, of Grant’s staff, who had collected some twenty guns or more and manned them with volunteers. Soon after 4 o’clock Chalmers andJackson, proceeding down the river-bank while Prentiss’s surrender was going on, came upon this position. The approaches were bad from that direction; nevertheless, they attacked resolutely, and, though repeatedly repulsed, kept up their assaults till nightfall. At one time