My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field Part 16

MONDAY.

Beauregard laid his plans to begin the attack at daybreak. Grant and Buell resolved to do the same,--not to stand upon the defensive, but to astonish Beauregard by advancing. Nelson's division was placed on the left, nearest the river, Crittenden's next, McCook's beyond, and Lewis Wallace on the extreme right,--all fresh troops,--with Grant's other divisions, which had made such a stubborn resistance, in reserve.

In General Nelson's division, you see nearest the river Colonel Ammen's brigade, consisting of the Thirty-sixth Indiana, Sixth and Twenty-fourth Ohio; next, Colonel Bruer's brigade, First, Second, and Twentieth Kentucky; next, Colonel Hazen's brigade, Ninth Indiana, Sixth Kentucky, and Forty-first Ohio. Colonel Ammen's brigade arrived in season to take part in the contest at the ravine on Sunday evening.

General Crittenden's division had two brigades: General Boyle's and Colonel W. L. Smith's. General Boyle had the Nineteenth and Fifty-ninth Ohio, and Ninth and Thirteenth Kentucky. Colonel Smith's was composed of the Thirteenth Ohio, and Eleventh and Twenty-sixth Kentucky, with Mendenhall's battery, belonging to the United States Regular Army, and Bartlett's Ohio battery.

General McCook's division had three brigades. The first was commanded by General Rousseau, consisting of the First Ohio, Sixth Indiana, Third Kentucky, and battalions of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Nineteenth Regular Infantry. The second brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Gibson, and consisted of the Thirty-second and Thirty-ninth Indiana, and Forty-ninth Ohio. The third brigade was commanded by Colonel Kirk, and consisted of the Thirty-fourth Illinois, Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth Indiana, and Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania.

General Lewis Wallace's division, which had been reorganized after the battle of Fort Donelson, now consisted of three brigades. The first was commanded by Colonel Morgan L. Smith, and consisted of the Eighth Missouri, Eleventh and Twenty-fourth Indiana, and Thurber's Missouri battery. The second brigade was commanded by Colonel Thayer, and contained the same regiments that checked the Rebels at the brook west of Fort Donelson,--the First Nebraska, Twenty-third and Sixty-eighth Ohio, with Thompson's Indiana battery. The third brigade was commanded by Colonel Whittlesey, and was composed of the Twentieth, Fifty-sixth, Seventy-sixth, and Seventy-eighth Ohio.

Two brigades of General Wood's division arrived during the day, but not in season to take part in the battle.

Beauregard's brigades were scattered during the night. They had retired in confusion before the terrible fire at the ravine from the gunboats.

Officers were hunting for their troops, and soldiers were searching for their regiments, through the night. The work of reorganizing was going on when the pickets at daylight were driven in by the advance of the Union line.

Beauregard, Bragg, Hardee, and Polk all slept near the church. There was no regularity of divisions, brigades, or regiments. Ruggles was west of the church with two of his brigades. Trabue's brigade of Breckenridge's reserves was there. Breckenridge, with his other brigades, or what was left of them, was east of the church, also the shattered fragments of Withers's division. Gladden's brigade had crumbled to pieces, and Colonel Deas, commanding it, was obliged to pick up stragglers of all regiments. Russell and Stewart were near Prentiss's camp. Cheatham was in the vicinity, but his regiments were dwindled to companies, and scattered over all the ground.

Beauregard had established a strong rear-guard, and had issued orders to shoot all stragglers. The order was rigidly enforced, and the runaways were brought back and placed in line. Although exhausted, disorganized, and checked, the Rebels had not lost heart. They were confident of victory, and at once rallied when they found the Union army was advancing.

Look once more at the position of the divisions. Nelson is on the ground over which Stuart and Hurlburt retreated. Crittenden is where Prentiss was captured, McCook where McClernand made his desperate stand, and Lewis Wallace where Sherman's line gave way.

The gunboats, by their constant fire during the night, had compelled the Rebels to fall back in front of Nelson. It was a little after five o'clock when Nelson threw forward his skirmishers, and advanced his line. He came upon the Rebels half-way out to Lick Creek, near the peach-orchard. The fight commenced furiously. Beauregard was marching brigades from his left, and placing them in position for a concentrated attack to gain the Landing. General Crittenden had not advanced, and Nelson was a.s.sailed by a superior force. He held his ground an hour, but he had no battery. He had been compelled to leave it at Savannah. He sent an aid to General Buell requesting artillery. Mendenhall was sent.

He arrived just in time to save the brigade from an overwhelming onset.

The Rebels were advancing when he unlimbered his guns, but his quick discharges of grape at short range threw them into confusion.

It astonished General Beauregard. He had not expected it. He was to attack and annihilate Grant, not be attacked and driven.[20] He ordered up fresh troops from his reserves, and the contest raged with increased fury.

[Footnote 20: Beauregard's Report.]

Nelson, seeing the effect of Mendenhall's fire, threw Hazen's brigade forward. It came upon the battery which had been cutting them to pieces.

With a cheer they sprang upon the guns, seized them, commenced turning them upon the fleeing enemy. The Rebel line rallied and came back, followed by fresh troops. There was a short, severe struggle, and Hazen was forced to leave the pieces and fall back. Then the thunders rolled again. The woods were sheets of flame.[21] The Rebels brought up more of their reserves, and forced Nelson to yield his position. He fell back a short distance, and again came into position. He was a stubborn man,--a Kentuckian, a sailor, who had been round the world. His discipline was severe. His men had been well drilled, and were as stubborn as their leader.

[Footnote 21: Nelson's Report.]

"Send me another battery, quick!" was his request, made to General Buell.

Tirrell's battery, which had just landed from a steamer, went up the hill, through the woods, over stumps and trees, the horses leaping as if they had caught the enthusiasm of the commander of the battery. Captain Tirrell had a quick eye.

"Into position there. Lively, men! Caissons to the rear!" were his words of command. The gunners sprang from the carriages to the ground. The caissons wheeled, bringing the heads of the horses towards the Landing, trotted off eight or ten rods and took position sheltered by a ridge of land. Captain Tirrell rode from gun to gun.

"Fire with sh.e.l.l, two-second fuses," he said to the lieutenants commanding his two ten-pounder Parrott guns.

"Grape and canister," he said to the officers commanding the four bra.s.s twelve-pounders. Its fire was terrific. Wherever his guns were turned there was silence along the Rebel lines. Their musketry ceased. Their columns staggered back. All the while Mendenhall was pounding them. The Nineteenth Ohio, from Crittenden's division, came down upon the run, joined the brigade, and the contest went on again. The Rebels, instead of advancing, began to lose the ground they had already won.

Crittenden and McCook advanced a little later. They came upon the enemy, which had quiet possession of McClernand's and Sherman's camps.

Beauregard's head-quarters were there. The Rebels, finding themselves a.s.sailed, made a desperate effort to drive back the advancing columns.

Rousseau advanced across the open field, over the ground so hotly contested by McClernand the day before. This movement made a gap between McCook and Crittenden. Beauregard saw it, threw Cheatham and Withers into the open s.p.a.ce. They swung round square against Rousseau's left, pouring in a volley which staggered the advancing regiments. The Thirty-second Indiana regiment, Colonel Willich commanding, was on the extreme right of McCook's division. They had been in battle before, and were ordered across to meet the enemy. You see them fly through the woods in rear of Rousseau's brigade. They are upon the run. They halt, dress their ranks as if upon parade, and charge upon the Rebels. Colonel Stambough's Seventy-seventh Pennsylvania follows. Then all of Kirk's brigade. It is a change of position and a change of front, admirably executed, just at the right time, for Rousseau is out of ammunition, and is obliged to fall back. McCook's third brigade, General Gibson, comes up. Rousseau is ready again, and at eleven o'clock you see every available man of that division contending for the ground around the church. Meanwhile Wallace is moving over the ground on the extreme right, where Sherman fought so bravely. Sherman, Hurlburt, and the shattered regiments of W. H. L. Wallace's division, now commanded by McArthur, follow in reserve. Driven back by Nelson, the Rebel forces concentrate once more around the church for a final struggle. Wallace watches his opportunities. He gains a ridge. His men drop upon the ground, deliver volley after volley, rise, rush nearer to the enemy, drop once more, while the grape and canister sweep over them. Thus they come to close quarters, and then regiment after regiment rises, and delivers its fire. It is like the broadsides of a man-of-war.

The time had come for a general advance. Nelson, Crittenden, McCook, Wallace, almost simultaneously charged upon the enemy. It was too powerful to be resisted. The Rebels gave way, retreated from the camps which they had occupied a single night, fled past the church, across the brook, up through the old cotton-field on the south side, to the shelter of the forest on the top of the ridge beyond. The battle was lost to them. Exultant cheers rang through the forest for the victory won.

If I were to go through all the details, as I might, and write how Crittenden's brigades pressed on, and captured Rebel batteries; how the Rebels tried to overwhelm him; how the tide of battle surged from hill to hill; how the Rebels tried to cut McCook to pieces; how Wallace's division flanked the enemy at Owl Creek; how Rousseau's brigade fought in front of McClernand's camp; how the Fifth Kentucky charged upon a battery, and captured two guns which were cutting them up with grape and canister, and four more which were disabled and could not be dragged off by the enemy; how Colonel Willich, commanding the Thirty-second Indiana, finding some of his men were getting excited, stopped firing, and drilled them, ordering, presenting, and supporting arms, with the b.a.l.l.s whistling through his ranks; how the men became cool and steady, and went in upon a charge at last with a wild hurrah, and a plunge of the bayonet that forced the Rebels to give up McClernand's camp; how Colonel Ammen coolly husked ears of corn for his horse, while watching the fight, with the sh.e.l.ls falling all around him; how Colonel Kirk seized a flag and bore it in advance of his brigade; how Color-Sergeant William Ferguson of the Thirteenth Missouri was shot down, how Sergeant Beem of Company C seized the flag before it touched the ground, and advanced it still farther; how Beauregard was riding madly along the lines by the church, trying to rally his men, when Thurber's battery opened, and broke them up again; how, at noon, he saw it was no use; how he drew off his men, burned his own camp, and went back to Corinth, defeated, his troops disheartened, leaving his killed and hundreds of his wounded on the field; how the Union army recovered all the cannon lost on Sunday;--if I were to write it all out, I should have no room to tell you what Commodore Foote was doing all this time on the Mississippi.

It was a terrible fight. The loss on each side was nearly equal,--about thirteen thousand killed, wounded, and missing, or twenty-six thousand in all.

I had a friend killed in the fight on Sunday,--Captain Carson, commanding General Grant's scouts. He was tall and slim, and had sparkling black eyes. He had travelled all over Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, had often been in the Rebel camps. He was brave, almost fearless, and very adroit. He said to a friend, when the battle began in the morning, that he should not live through the day. But he was very active, riding recklessly through showers of bullets. It was just at sunset when he rode up to General Grant with a despatch from General Buell. He dismounted, and sat down upon a log to rest, but the next moment his head was carried away by a cannon-ball. He performed his duties faithfully, and gave his life willingly to his country.

You have seen how the army was surprised, how desperately it fought, how the battle was almost lost, how the gunboats beat back the exultant Rebels, how the victory was won. Beauregard was completely defeated; but he telegraphed to Jefferson Davis that he had won a great victory. This is what he telegraphed--

"CORINTH, April 8th, 1862.

"TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR, RICHMOND:--

"We have gained a great and glorious victory. Eight to ten thousand prisoners and thirty-six pieces of cannon. Buell reinforced Grant, and we retired to our intrenchments at Corinth, which we can hold.

Loss heavy on both sides.

"BEAUREGARD."

You see that, having forsworn himself to his country, he did not hesitate to send a false despatch, to mislead the Southern people and cover up his mortifying defeat.

The Rebel newspapers believed Beauregard's report. One began its account thus:--

"Glory! glory! glory! victory! victory! I write from Yankee papers. Of all the victories that have ever been on record, ours is the most complete. Bull Run was nothing in comparison to our victory at s.h.i.+loh. General Buell is killed, General Grant wounded and taken prisoner. Soon we will prove too much for them, and they will be compelled to let us alone. Our brave boys have driven them to the river, and compelled them to flee to their gunboats. The day is ours."[22]

[Footnote 22: Captain Geer.]

The people of the South believed all this; but when the truth was known their hopes went down lower than ever, for they saw it was a disastrous defeat.

On the Sabbath after the battle, the chaplains of the regiments had religious exercises. How different the scene! Instead of the cannonade, there were prayers to G.o.d. Instead of the musketry, there were songs of praise. There were tears shed for those who had fallen, but there were devout thanksgivings that they had given their lives so freely for their country and for the victory they had achieved by their sacrifice.

One of the chaplains, in conducting the service, read a hymn, commencing:

"Look down, O Lord, O Lord forgive; Let a repenting rebel live."

But he was suddenly interrupted by a patriotic soldier, who cried, "No sir, not unless they lay down their arms, every one of them."

He thought the chaplain had reference to the Rebels who had been defeated.

After the battle, a great many men and women visited the ground, searching for the bodies of friends who had fallen. Lieutenant Pfieff, an officer of an Illinois regiment, was killed, and his wife came to obtain his body. No one knew where he was buried. The poor woman wandered through the forest, examining all the graves. Suddenly a dog, poor and emaciated, bounded towards her, his eyes sparkling with pleasure, and barking his joy to see his mistress. When her husband went to the army, the dog followed him, and was with him through the battle, watched over his dead body through the terrible contest, and after he was buried, remained day and night a mourner! He led his mistress to the spot. The body was disinterred. The two sorrowful ones, the devoted wife and the faithful brute, watched beside the precious dust till it was laid in its final resting-place beneath the prairie-flowers.

CHAPTER IX.

EVACUATION OF COLUMBUS.

The Rebels, at the beginning of the war fortified Columbus, in Kentucky, which is twenty miles below Cairo on the Mississippi River. There the bluffs are very high, and are washed at their base by the mighty stream.