1st Minnesota Battery at Shiloh

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The 1st Minnesota Battery served with distinction on Sunday, April 6th at the Battle of Shiloh, unfortunately they did not receive the praise they deserved. W.H.L. Wallace,their division commander, was mortally wounded and Captain Emil Munch, the battery commander was seriously wounded and did not write an Official Report about the unit's performance.
Years after the War the state of Minnesota issued Minnesota in the civil and Indian wars 1861-1865, published in 1890, contained the article listed below. I am posting this in 2 parts:
Regards
David

NARRATIVE OF THE FIRST BATTERY OF LIGHT ARTILLERY. BY LIEUTENANT HENRY S. HURTER.

BATTLE OF PITTSBURGH LANDING​
The evening of April 4th, orders were received transferring us to Prentiss division, about two miles to the left. On Saturday we moved camp, and struck our tents in full sight of Prentiss headquarters and alongside the Fifth (Hickenlooper’s) Ohio Battery. Being bent on putting camp in as good shape as possible for Sunday inspection, we were out and at it bright and early. It must have been soon after five o clock in the morning when we heard the first firing in what we then supposed was the front, but little attention was paid to it, everyone sup posing that the pickets were firing off their guns on being relieved. About seven o clock we noticed a commotion at the headquarters; the general and his staff mounting and riding off in the direction whence the firing came. The Eighteenth Wisconsin, which arrived the day before, fresh from Madison, Wis., and were camped a little to the left and front of us, left their camp and marched in the same direction, while we had orders to be ready to move at a moment s warning. For about ten or fifteen minutes all was hurry and bustle in camp, then we stood ready waiting for the order. Without rations, without baggage of any kind, leaving our knapsacks packed in our tents, under charge of the quartermaster sergeant and the wagonmaster (who, by the way, had six baggage wagons under him), we finally left the camp under orders to proceed to the front, following the four guns of the Fifth Ohio.
We had not proceeded over three- quarters of a mile when the latter pulled out to the left of the road and commenced to get into battery. We formed on the right of the road, but before we had unlimbered, the rebels, whom we saw skulking through the woods, opened on us, and one man (Stinson) fell shot through the neck, while three others (Lammers, Davis and Blood) were wounded. The two first named subsequently died of their wounds, although it is the writer s opinion that either of the two, with proper care, would have recovered. Our captain soon perceived that the rebels had discovered two batteries firing on them with not a solitary infantry man to cover them, and determined on taking them in, gave the order to limber to the rear, and owing to his sound judgment shown in the manner in which we had formed into battery, we retired without leaving any of our guns, although the left piece of the centre section had become disabled, the trail breaking in two at the elevation screw. Capt. Munch’s horse received a bullet in his head and fell, and in attempting to remove his saddle the captain himself received a ball in his thigh, disabling him for further service on that field.
When our battery, retreating, passed our camp, the writer made a flying visit to it. While directing a couple of sick comrades, who were still in the tents unaware of the condition of things, what direction to take, the rebel bullets commenced to fly about, indicating that they were closing up pretty fast.
When I rejoined the battery it had just taken a new position on a small elevation with an open field to our left, and was awaiting the enemy. The writer’s gun, the remaining one of the centre section, under Lieut. Fisher, was soon placed in position within a few yards of an open field, on the other side of which a large log house and barricades built by the rebels were taken for our aim. We were firing percussion shells at them. The guns had become dirty, the water in the sponge bucket had been spilled and no other water could be obtained. The consequence was that one of the shells, the lining of which had been loosened in some way, stuck about half-way down the piece. We were in a dilemma what to do. Ramming was of no use, but even dangerous to our selves. We did not dare to fire it, for fear of exploding the piece and injuring some of the men surrounding us. Finally it was decided to go back to the landing, where we would find the gun with the broken trail, dismount the piece, and mount it on our carriage.
When we arrived on the edge of the hill forming the landing we found it covered with soldiers, who had taken refuge there from the rebel shot and bullets, who had given up all hope and turned a deaf ear to entreaties of officers, asking them, for God s sake, to rise and go out to assist their brethren, who, within a mile of them, tried to stem the onslaught of the victorious foe. This crowd was so panic-stricken, so discouraged and disheartened, that nothing but a miracle seemed to be able to revive them. The most blood-curdling stories of Southern cruelty, murder and vengeance passed around, and had the Tennessee River not formed such an effectual barrier to their retreat many of them would never have stopped until they reached their Northern homes.
Fortunately the steam boats lying at the landing had been ordered to move out into the stream, other wise no power on earth could have prevented those desperate fellows from crowding onto them, overloading and sinking them. It took us more than an hour to reach our broken gun, down at the foot of the landing, as we had to use all kinds of means to move the men out of our road. When at last we had a serviceable gun again, and wanted to return to our position with the rest of the battery, all trace of the same had been lost, and we were compelled to remain where we stood. It was about 5 o clock p. m. when, to our great joy, the other four guns made their appearance, but in what plight!
They had been with Gen. Prentiss and W. H. L. Wallace in that hotly contested fight at the so-called "hornets nest." It was the First Minnesota Battery, one section under Lieut. Pfaender, the other under Lieut. Peebles, which, together with a Missouri battery, stood there for hours, repelling charge after charge, and receiving, after all, but little praise for their action. Why? Gen. Wallace, the man who had supported our guns with his regiments, who had stood almost among them, watching the execution of their shots, laid down his life upon the altar of his country a few minutes after he had given Lieut. Pfaender orders to try and get his guns out, seeing that it would be useless to hold on longer.
Gen. Prentiss, who had scarcely any knowledge of the existence of such an organization as the First Minnesota Battery, whose division had been about the first surprised by the unexpected attack that morning, and who, after almost superhuman efforts, had at last to surrender to the victorious enemy, had no time to observe much of the doings of a few guns, and hence it is that no reports of the battle have ever mentioned the battery.
One thing is sure, and I defy anyone to deny the truth, that had the forces under the two above mentioned leaders not stood up so heroically and valiantly to their task, nothing would have prevented Beauregard and his hosts from the execution of his threat to drive us into the Tennessee. [At the request of the commission, Lieutenant Colonel William Pfaender, who as first lieutenant had command of the battery after Captain Munch was disabled, has made a statement of his recollections of the battle, which is here inserted:] l Early Sunday, April 6th, the camp was put in order, and the officers and men arranged their tents to be ready for inspection, little dreaming that the stray shots which were heard in front indicated more than the firing of the reliefs coming from picket duty. But soon the firing became more lively, and noting a sudden motion in the camp of the Fifth Ohio Battery, which was not very far off, its meaning was soon explained by an orderly dashing up and bringing the verbal order to move to the front immediately. In a very short time the battery was ready and quickly advanced in the direction which had been taken by the Fifth Ohio Battery, meeting numbers of men running to the rear; but the battery moved briskly on and shortly reached a position in a somewhat open timber patch where the Fifth Ohio Battery had formed, but without firing a shot, on our arrival had just commenced retreating.
Being hard pressed by the rebels, some of their pieces were left behind, and as we formed the rebels had already taken possession of them and were trying to turn them upon us; but before they could do so our firing commenced and drove them back. A heavy skirmish line of the enemy was at this moment within a hundred yards of the battery. In forming for action one, of the drivers of the first (right) section of the battery had been killed and several men wounded, but our rapid firing soon cleared our immediate front and checked the further advance of the enemy, as our formation happened to be in the shape of the convex of a light crescent, and our fire, therefore, covered a wider range than in regular formation. Up to the time of our coming into action no artillery firing had been heard, and it is a fact, which will not be disputed, that the First Minnesota Battery fired the first guns on that memorable day. The rebels finding that it was absolutely necessary to dislodge or capture the bat tery before they could advance, took shelter from our canister behind trees, and tried hard to pick off officers and gunners, and succeeded in wounding Captain Munch and several men, and killing and wounding a number of horses.
The battery having had no support whatever, and being left entirely alone, the captain, just before being wounded, gave the order to retreat, and while he was brought to the rear the movement was carried out in good order, beginning from the left; and as the last piece on the right turned to follow, the head driver, stunned by a glancing bullet, got in between two trees with his span, causing a- delay which nearly resulted in the capture of the gun, as a rebel column had turned to the right to flank the battery, and the detachment slipped out just in front of the head of their column without a man or a horse being hurt. About a mile back of the first position the battery again formed in charge of Lieutenant Pfaender, who had assumed command, but being still without any support, under the personal direction of General Prentiss, fell back a quarter of a mile further and behind the new line which had in the meantime been formed by General Hurlbut. " Shortly after the battery had commenced firing in the first position the trail of one of the six-pounders of the second section broke, and being rendered entirely un-serviceable, was ordered to the rear. The remaining piece of the second section was also rendered un-serviceable, one of the percussion balls getting stuck when rammed about half down; and when the battery arrived within Hurlbut s lines this piece was also ordered to Pittsburgh Landing, with instructions to mount one complete gun out of the two disabled ones, and to rejoin the battery if possible. At the same time the remaining four guns were again fully equipped, the vacancies filled and horses replaced from the second section, and in a short time the battery was ready for further service.
Part 1 To be continued
 
Part 2

THE HORNETS NEST​
Trying now to find some superior officer to whom to report the battery ready for action, Lieutenant Pfaender, riding out a short distance, fortunately noticed General Prentiss rallying some remnants of his division, and was by him, in per son, ordered to advance to a position which was then being formed by Generals, Prentiss and W. H. L. Wallace, and which proved to be the noted hornets nest against which the rebels time and again hurled their most determined attacks without being able to break it. It must have been about eleven o clock when the battery took this new position on an elevated piece of ground, from which an open field on the other side of a ravine in front could be commanded, and whenever a charge was attempted across that field the artillery fire raked the enemy down fearfully. Some of General Prentiss infantry were in the ravine in front of the battery. Welker s Missouri battery was engaged on our immediate left. ‘Between two fields, a quarter of a mile apart, on a slight ridge of land covered by good sized oaks, and in places patches of dense brush, lies this historcal spot that was made rich by the blood of many hundred human beings’. The space occupied by the “hornets nest” was not very large, and could, from the position which I occupied, and on horseback, be at times surveyed tolerably well. I have always been of the opinion that Welker’s six and our four pieces were the only artillery there. Twice rebel batteries were placed in the timber at the further edge of the field to dislodge us, but before they were able to get the range of our positron our guns had silenced them. For hours they vainly tried to break our line, and the left section of the battery, under Lieutenant Peebles, having been ordered further to the left, had to repel several determined charges and was badly cut up, but inflicted terrible losses on the enemy by mowing them down with canister at close range.
"Toward five o clock there was a short lull in the fighting, but soon the firing was renewed, and noticing that the bullets were coming from our left rear, General Wallace, who was at that time giving directions to the lieutenant commanding, hastened toward the left and within a few minutes returned and gave the command to retreat, as he ascertained that the position had finally been flanked and General Prentiss with part of his forces taken prisoners. Immediately after we had commenced to withdraw, the adjutant of General Wallace passed us with the report that the general had just been mortally wounded or killed. Reaching the ravine running across the Corinth road, we noticed the enemy in large numbers flocking down the sides of it to cross over to the road and to cut off our retreat, and on ascending to the top of the elevation, to prevent our being captured, quickly the guns were once more brought into position, from which we poured our canister amongst them as fast as possible, thus giving them the last and parting artillery fire of the afternoon, then retreating at slow trot toward the river, and being the last body of Union soldiers reaching the bluffs at the landing before the rebels closed in on the road.
The battery keeping together in the mass of remnants of regiments, teams and stragglers assembled on such a limited area, soon the detachments sent to remount their piece were found at the landing, and as Colonel Webster, General Grant s chief of artillery had commenced to form his line of defense, consisting of siege guns and all the available artillery, the battery was reported to him with five pieces complete, and was directed to take a position on the left of the bluff and commanding the ravine which runs in from the Tennessee River. The Twelfth Missouri Regiment was detailed as our support and consisted of about one hundred men under command of a captain, and it was not very long before the firing commenced, which was kept up for about half an hour. The ground was fairly shaking from the continuous firing, and it would have been impossible for any army to undertake to penetrate that line of fire and iron, and in all probability, at the cessation of the firing, the rebels had withdrawn to a safe distance from the landing. Tired out and hungry, we laid down without any camp equipage of any kind, as our camp was in possession of the enemy, and when about midnight a heavy shower poured down, all sought shelter under the guns and caissons covered with tarpaulins, but received a good soaking.
On the morning of the 7th, when the hostilities were to be renewed with the aid of the reinforcements from Buell’s army, the lieutenant commanding reported to General Grant in person, who was just coming up the road from the landing with his staff, and was by him directed to remain at the position pointed out until he would send orders, which, however, did not come, and so we remained in the reserve during the second day s fight. As Prentiss division was nearly broken up by his disaster, no account of the part taken by the battery was given in the reports of the several commanders, and therefore we may be pardoned for referring to the statement of General Prentiss, made in his lecture on "Shiloh" at White Bear Lake in 1888, when he said that the First Minnesota Battery had never received the credit it deserved for its gallantry; that it was mainly due to the excellent work done by them, and particularly by the left section under Lieutenant Peebles, that the hornets nest with its comparatively small force of men held out so long against the overwhelming numbers of the rebels. The casualties of the day were, Privates Stinson, Taxdahl and Tilson killed; Corporals Davis and Lammers died of wounds; Captain Munch, Lieutenant Peebles, Sergeants Clayton and Conner, severely, and several more lightly wounded. Both Captain Munch and Lieutenant Pfaender’s horses were killed from under them, and sixteen horses of the battery killed."
The fight at the “hornets nest" was the straw that broke the camel s back. The third section of our battery, however, bore the brunt of the battle then and there. Its commander, Lieut. Peebles, was severely wounded; also the two sergeants, Clayton and Conner; Privates Taxdahl and Tilson had been killed, besides a number of the horses had been shot dead or disabled. The same evening we took our position on the hill overlooking the slough through which the enemy was expected to make his last charge. We had five guns in position a short
distance to the left of where Col. Webster had formed an immense battery of some thirty or more guns, among them some siege guns. To our left was another battery that had arrived but a day or two before the battle, and had not been as signed yet to any command. At the mouth of the slough stood the two gunboats Tyler and Lexington and when the enemy finally made the attempt he found the reception too hot, and gave it up. Thus ended the first day at Shiloh. Tired, hungry, and somewhat gloomy, we laid our weary bones down to rest that night, and we got more than rest we received a drenching that no one ever forgot. The writer had found a comfortable sleeping apartment under one of the tarpaulin covered caissons, and when he awoke in the morning found the water running between his chest and knees, having been obliged to sit in that position in order to give room to another comrade on the opposite side of the bedroom. The battery did not participate on the second day of the battle.
https://ia902308.us.archive.org/9/items/minnesotacivil01minnrich/minnesotacivil01minnrich.pdf (Pages 640-644)
 
The 1st Minnesota Battery monument at Shiloh
Regards
David
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In the document from the Minnesota in the civil and Indian wars 1861-1865 the 1st Minnesota Battery stated it was in the 2nd Division commanded by W.H.K. Wallace yet according to another document this was incorrect. I highly recommend this publication if you desire to "get down into the weeds" about locations and returns for the armies engaged at Shiloh. As usual, the Confederate records are incomplete.
Regards
David

In The Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged Compiled from the Official Records by Major D.W. Reed---a veteran of Shiloh with the 14th Iowa---Historian and Secretary Under the Authority of the Commission published in 1902 (Revised 1909) the 1st Minnesota Battery is in the Sixth Division under Benjamin Prentiss.

The excerpt below describes the actions of the 1st Minnesota Battery

SIXTH DIVISION. (Prentiss's.) On the 26th day of March, 1862, General Grant, by Special Order No. 36, assigned General Prentiss to the command of unattached troops then arriving at Pittsburg Landing, with directions to organize these regiments, as they arrived upon the field, into brigades, and the brigades into a division, to be designated the Sixth Division. Under this order one brigade of four regiments, commanded by Colonel Peabody, had been organized and was encamped on west side of the Eastern Corinth road, 400 yards south of the Barnes Field. Another brigade, commanded by Colonel Miller, Eighteenth Missouri, was partialty organized. Three regiments had reported and were in camp on the east side of the Eastern Corinth road. Other regiments on their way up the river had been ordered to report to General Prentiss, but had not arrived. The Sixteenth Iowa arrived on the field on the 5th and sent its morning report to General Prentiss in time to have it included in his report of present for duty that day; it was not fully equipped and did not disembark from the boat until morning of the 6th. The Fifteenth Iowa and Twenty-third Missouri arrived at the Landing Sunday morning, April 6, 1862. The Twenty-third Missouri reported to General Prentiss at his third position about 9.30 a. m., and was placed in line at once as part of his command. The Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa were, by General Grant's order, sent to the right to reinforce McClernand. They reported to him at his fifth line in Jones Field, and were 59 hotly engaged from about 1 p. m. to 2.30 p. m. Hickenlooper's Fifth Ohio Battery and Munch's First Minnesota Battery and twobattalions of Eleventh Illinois Cavalry had been assigned to the division and were encamped in rear of the infantry. One company from each regiment was on picket 1 mile in front of the camps. On Saturday, April 5, a reconnoitering party under Colonel Moore, Twenty-first Missouri, was sent out to the front. Colonel Moore reported Confederate cavalry and some evidences of an infantry force in front, but he failed to develop a regular line of the enemy. Prentiss doubled his pickets, and at 3 a. m. Sunday sent out another party of three companies of the Twenty-fifth Missouri, under Major Powell, to reconnoiter well to the front. This party encountered the Confederate picket under Major Hardcastle in Fraley's field at 4.55 a. m. These pickets at once engaged, and continued their fire until about 6.30 a. m., when the advance of the main line of Hardee's corps drove Powell back. General Prentiss, hearing the firing, formed his division at 6 a. m. and sent Peabody's brigade in advance of his camp to relieve the retiring pickets and posted Miller's brigade 300 yards in front of his camp, with batteries in the field at right and left of the Eastern Corinth road. In this position the division was attacked at 8 a. m. by the brigades of Gladden, Shaver, Chalmers, and Wood and driven back to its camp, where the contest was renewed. At 9 a. m. Prentiss was compelled to abandon his camp and fall back to his third position, which he occupied at 9.05 a. m., in an old road between the divisions of Hurlbut and W. H. L. Wallace. Hickenlooper lost two guns in first position and Munch had two disabled. Each brought four guns into line at the Hornets' Nest. Prentiss was here joined by the Twenty-third Missouri, which gave him about 1,000 men at his third position. With this force he held his line against the attacks of Shaver, Stephens, and Gibson, as described in account of Tuttle's brigade, until 4 p. m. when Hurlbut fell back and Prentiss was obliged to swing his division back at right angles to Tuttle in order to protect the left flank. When Tuttle's left regiments marched to the rear Prentiss fell back behind them towards the Corinth road and was surrounded and captured at 5.30 p. m. near the forks of the Eastern Corinth road. Hickenlooper and Munch withdrew just before they were surrounded, Hickenlooper reporting to Sherman and becoming engaged in the 4.30 action on Hamburg road. Munch's battery reported to Colonel Webster and was in position at mouth of Dill Branch, where it assisted in repelling last attack Sunday night. (Pages 58-59)
https://ia801409.us.archive.org/9/items/battleofshilohor00unit/battleofshilohor00unit.pdf
 
1st Minnesota Battery Battle Flag held at the Minnesota Historical Society
Regards
David

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The biography of Captain Emil Munch who was seriously wounded at Shiloh.
Regards
David

Emil Munch was born in Halberstadt, Prussia on December 12, 1832. He immigrated to the United States in 1849, settled in Taylors Falls, Minnesota in 1852, and then moved to Chengwatana in Pine County in 1857. He served in the Minnesota House of Representatives (1860-1861), but enlisted in the First Minnesota Artillery Battery on October 16, 1861 and was chosen captain the following month.

As a result of wounds received at the battle of Shiloh, and subsequent exposure while on march, Munch resigned his commission in December 1862. During May-July 1863 he served in Minnesota during the U.S.-Dakota War. In August he accepted an appointment to the Veteran Reserve Corps (also known as the Invalid Corps) and remained with that unit, at Camp Douglas, Illinois, until the war's end, despite an abortive attempt in 1865 to recommission him as a major in the First Minnesota Battery of Heavy Artillery. His duties there largely involved serving on courts martial and guarding military prisons.

Munch returned to St. Paul, married Bertha Segar in 1865, and served as deputy state treasurer and treasurer (1868-1872). He then moved to Lakeland (Washington County), Minnesota, where he engaged in the lumber business until 1872 when he took charge of a flour mill in nearby Afton. He died on August 30, 1887.*


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http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/P0057.xml
 
The biography of Lieutenant Wilhelm Pfaender who assumed command upon the wounding of Captain Munch.
Regards
David

Born in Heilbronn, Germany, in 1826 to a family of laborers, Wilhelm Pfaender came to the United States with ideals shaped by his involvement with the Turner movement. First in Heilbronn and then in Ulm, Pfaender helped to found Turner societies. The Turners (from turner, the German word for gymnast) encouraged gymnastics and other forms of exercise while promoting nationalism, political and religious freedom, education, and equality.

Pfaender left Germany amid the turmoil of the 1848 revolution. Traveling first to England, where he met Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, he settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. There he again founded a Turner Society and served as its first president. In 1851, he married Catherine Pfau, who had grown up in a Turner family.

In 1855, Pfaender wrote a letter on “Practical Turnerism” for a national Turner newspaper. In it, he called for creating a German American colony. In such a town, Pfaender thought, Germans could live free from harassment by anti-German nativists. They could act on their Turner values and practice German customs. In response to his appeal, the Cincinnati Turner Society set up the Settlement Association of the Socialist Turner Society and named Pfaender as its leader.

In 1856, Pfaender traveled throughout the Midwest in search of a location for the new town. Along the banks of the Minnesota River, the Chicago Land Association had already started to build a new town for German Americans in 1854. Pfaender decided to join in this effort, and the Cincinnati group united with the Chicago Land Association to form the German Land Association of Minnesota. With support from the Cincinnati Turner Society, they purchased more land and sold lots to their members. In 1857, the town of New Ulm incorporated.

Together with fellow Turners, Pfaender founded the New Ulm Turner Society in 1856. They built a Turner Hall in the center of the town a year later. The German Land Association set up several businesses in New Ulm, including a mill and a store. Individuals soon took over ownership of these enterprises, and the German Land Association dissolved in 1859. Turner beliefs, however, in sound bodies and minds, freedom, fellowship, and the common good continued to influence the new town.

New Ulm’s Turner Hall housed the town’s first school as well as many social and athletic activities. Strongly secular, the New Ulm Turner Society encouraged religious tolerance towards immigrants who joined the Forty-Eighters (as the participants in the failed 1848 revolution were called) in moving to New Ulm. When the first Turner Hall burned down during the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862, the Turners quickly rebuilt it. The Turner Hall returned to its central place in New Ulm cultural life.

Pfaender filled many important positions in New Ulm. He served as president of the new town’s city council and its postmaster. He performed the first marriage ceremony held in New Ulm, on March 17, 1857. As a member of the Electoral College, Pfaender cast a vote for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election.

In 1861, Pfaender acted again on Turner values when he, along with other Turners, joined the fight for the Union. An officer in the First Battery of Minnesota Light Artillery, he fought at the battle of Shiloh, where he and his unit played a vital role. He returned to Minnesota during the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862. As a lieutenant colonel in the Second Minnesota Cavalry, he was in charge of Fort Ridgely until 1865.

After the Civil War, Pfaender continued to take an active role in the civic life of New Ulm and Minnesota. By the time of his death on August 11, 1905, he had held a wide variety of offices, including mayor, state representative, and state senator. He also served two terms as Minnesota State Treasurer.*
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*http://www.mnopedia.org/person/pfaender-wilhelm-1826-1905
 
Great Post. Their action at the Hornest Nest was pretty sporty and they put a lot of rounds down range.
 
I found the report below in the program form the Report of the Minnesota - Shiloh' Monument Commission and thought that others might be interested.
Regards
David

To the Governor of Minnesota Including Ceremonies of Dedication of Memorial to the First Battery Minnesota Light Artillery, in the Shiloh National Military Park,
April 10, 1908.

L. F. Hubbard
C. C. Andrews
H. S. Hurter
Commissioners

Dedication of Memorial to First Minnesota Battery
In the Shiloh National Military Park
April 10, 1908

General C. C. Andrews’ Address
It was the fortune of Minnesota to have troops in each of the six greatest Civil War battles and campaigns of the West—Shiloh, Stone’s River, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga and Nashville. Shiloh was really the first great battle of the war and occurred April 6 and 7, 1862. Its moral effect was great. The aggregate strength of both sides, though not all engaged each day, was 111,511 officers and men. The aggregate loss of both sides, being remarkably evenly divided, was 3,482 killed and 16,420 wounded. The latter included mortally wounded, which according to usual estimates—64 per cent. of the killed—amounted to 2,228.

These casualties seem small compared with what we read of battles centuries ago; but it is my firm opinion that the losses recorded in history up to about a century ago were frequently taken from hearsay and are often gross exaggerations. The battlefield of Shiloh takes its name from a small log meeting house which stood two miles back from the so-called Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. The ground, as you see, has a moderately undulating surface about eighty feet above the river, handsomely wooded with oak, and was at the time of the battle
more densely wooded; also had more underbrush. Then, as now, scattered over the nearly three miles square area were about twenty fields or cleared places. It was crossed by several roads.

It was not Gen. Grant’s purpose to have a battle at Shiloh. He purposed occupying Corinth, a railroad junction twenty-two miles distant, and had placed his army of the Tennessee in camp here until Gen. Buell with the army of the Ohio could join him. Knowing the situation, the Confederate general, Albert Sidney Johnston, Saturday, April 5th, marched from the vicinity of Corinth with the Army of the Mississippi, bivouacked that night within about three miles of Shiloh meeting house and attacked Grant’s army furiously early the next morning—a delightful spring morning—,hoping to gain a decisive victory before Buell’s army came up.

Hard fighting took place throughout the day. The Union lines were driven back a mile or more and to within about half a mile of the Tennessee River. The flanks of the Union army were fortunately protected by creeks at high water. Also two gunboats rendered service on the left flank. The Confederate general fell at half past two in the afternoon, and was succeeded by Gen. Beauregard. Gen. Grant arranged for taking the initiative by attacking early the next morning. The Army of the Ohio had arrived and took part in the second day’s struggle, and at three and a half o’clock, under cover of a charge in the center, the Confederate army withdrew
from the field.

The First Minnesota Battery of Light Artillery, Capt. Emil Munch commanding, having been assigned to Prentiss’ Division, went into camp with that division near the front the day before the battle—5~ commissioned officers and 121 enlisted men present for duty—and was engaged during the first day of the battle. Capt. Munch was severely wounded and disabled early in the morning. For some hours the right and left sections under command of First Lieut. William Pfaender, were engaged on ground near the site of this monument and which, from the severity of the fighting, became known as the “Hornets Nest.” The two guns of the center section were disabled early in the day, but one of them took part in the evening with the other four guns in resisting a Confederate charge. The loss of the battery during the battle was three killed and eight wounded. Also sixteen of its horses were killed. On the second day the battery was held in reserve.

The Minnesota Legislature having appropriated $5,000 for a memorial to the First Minnesota Battery in this National Military Park, and appointed a commission of three to erect it, the commissioners met here and selected this site for the memorial, May 26, 1907. Proposals were invited to be submitted on the 16th of September last. The commission decided that if possible apiece of sculpture should form a part of the memorial. The contract was awarded to the P. N. Peterson Granite Company of Minnesota, and this statue was made by a Minnesota sculptor, Mr. ]. K. Daniels.

It represents the average private soldier of the Civil War of the age of about twenty-two years. In his face courage and mercy are equally blended. He is looking out upon ground made glorious by immortal valor. This memorial was intended simply to do honor to Minnesota soldiers. but in some sense it reflects honor upon every soldier who did a manly part on this consecrated field.
*https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951p011117275;view=1up;seq=20 (Pages 15-16)
 
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