Life and Letters of General W. H. L. Wallace

XVIII. Battle of Shiloh.

CHAPTER XVIII. BATTLE OF SHILOH. T HERE was no battle of the Civil War over which there has been so much written, with more discussion , and perhaps more criticism, than the terrific battle of Shiloh at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, beginning early in the morning of April sixth, lasting the entire day and the greater part of the following day. Major-General Halleck was in command of the Western armies, which at this time were composed of the army of the Ohio and the army of the Tennessee. For a short time Major-General C. F. Smith was the commander of the army of the Tennessee, but, owing to an accident to his knee, had to relinquish the command. On March seventh General U. S. Grant was reinstated in command of this army with headquarters at Savannah. General Halleck's orders were to destroy the railroad connection at Corinth, twenty miles away, where the Confederate army was in force, but to do nothing towards bringing on an engagement until the army of the Ohio should arrive under General Buell from Nashville . The army of the Tennessee commanded by Major-General U. S. Grant was on the fifth of April composed of six divisions: The First commanded by Major-General John A. McClernand . The Second by Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace. The Third by Major-General Lew Wallace. The Fourth by Brigadier-General S. A. Hurlbut. The Fifth by Brigadier-General W. T. Sherman. The Sixth by Brigadier-General B. M. Prentiss. Of infantry, artillery and cavalry, officers and men concentrated here at Pittsburg Landing and Crump's Landing there were over forty-seven thousand. The Confederates numbered about forty-four thousand men. Pittsburg Landing at the time of the battle was merely a [188] LIFE AND LETTERS OF GENERAL W. H. L. WALLACE landing for steamboats. From here a good road ran southwesterly to Corinth. The bluff rising from the river is about eighty feet; the ground on the bluff, and where the battle was fought, along the Corinth road, is about the same level, but is cut up on either side by deep ravines and water courses leading into Snake and Owl Creeks on the north, and Lick Creek on the south. Lick Creek empties into the Tennessee river about two miles above Pittsburg Landing, and Snake Creek about one mile below. These streams, therefore, formed an excellent protection against an attack upon either flank of an army encamped between them. The land near them was low and marshy and at this time of the year the creeks could not be crossed except by bridges. "In 1862 this plateau was covered with forest with thick undergrowth and an occasional clearing of a few acres surrounding a farm house." * General W. H. L. Wallace's division was near the Landing ; that of General Lew Wallace was beyond Snake Creek at Crump's Landing, six miles north of Pittsburg Landing. From Adamsville General Lew Wallace wrote the following letter to General W. H. L. Wallace dated the day before the battle. A copy of this letter of General Lew Wallace was sent to General Grant when writing his Memoirs, in reference to which he makes the following note in his book: "Since writing this chapter I have received from Mrs. W. H. L. Wallace, widow of the gallant General who was killed in the first day's fight on the field of Shiloh, a letter from General Lew Wallace to him, dated the morning of the fifth. 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 it over the road running from Adamsville to the Pittsburg Landing and *Major D. W. Reed, historian of Battle of Shiloh compiled from official records. [189] LIFE AND LETTERS OF GENERAL W. H. L. WALLACE 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...