Cheer!, Boys, Cheer! The Orphan Brigade at Shiloh Part 2
As Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston organized his forces in preparation for an attack on the Federals at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, he placed Gen. John C. Breckinridge in command of a Reserve Corps at Burnsville, Mississippi, at the end of March 1862. This "corps" was a division-size unit composed of the Kentucky Brigade, Bowen's, and Statham's Brigades. The senior Kentucky colonel, Robert P. Trabue of the 4th Kentucky Infantry, took command of the Kentucky Brigade, consisting of the 3rd, 4th, 5/9th, and 6th Kentucky regiments, 31st Alabama Infantry, 4th Alabama Battalion, Crews' Tennessee Battalion, Cobb's and Byrne's Batteries, and Morgan's Cavalry Squadron (attached). Here at Burnsville, on the eve of the battle of Shiloh, the Kentuckians received a supply of brand-new Enfield rifles that had been run through the blockade the previous fall, along with British accoutrements and ammunition. They would make good use of these in the coming battle.
Breckinridge's Reserve Corps took the road from Burnsville on the morning of April 4 and moved slowly in the rear of the army, passing Mickey's House (a local landmark often mentioned in reports) to arrive within four miles of Pittsburg Landing on the night of April 5. On the morning of the 6th, they again formed the rear of the army, following Gen. Leonidas Polk's Corps in the attack column. Early in this movement, Gen. Breckinridge was ordered to take his two rear brigades to the right, leaving Col. Trabue to lead the Kentucky Brigade forward on his own.
Moving off the Pittsburg-Corinth Road and passing Shiloh Church to their right, the Orphans came to the edge of an old field, which had been the scene of earlier action. With cannon shot and bullets whistling over their heads, Col. Trabue halted the Brigade in a depression and rode forward to reconnoiter and to place Cobb's Battery. Here, in the modern Crescent Field on Shiloh National Military Park, occurred one of the most memorable scenes of the battle. John Hunt Morgan's cavalrymen were nearby, having already been in action guarding the army's left flank. As the Kentuckians met, both groups broke out in song, singing the Kentuckians' favorite battle anthem:
"Cheer, boys, cheer, we'll march away to battle;
Cheer, boys, cheer, for our sweethearts and our wives;
Cheer, boys, cheer, we'll nobly do our duty;
And give to Kentucky our hearts, our arms, our lives!"
Here, too, Kentucky Confederate Governor George W. Johnson joined the ranks. He had been serving as a volunteer aide, but a stray shot killed his horse. He picked up a musket and asked to be sworn into the ranks as a private, joining Company E of the 4th Kentucky Infantry.
About this time, the 3rd Kentucky Infantry, the Alabama and Tennessee battalions, and Byrne's Battery were detached and moved to the right by order of Gen. Beauregard. Cobb's Battery was also moved (without Trabue's knowledge), so the Kentucky Brigade went into action with only the 4th, 6th, and 5th/9th Kentucky in line, with the 31st Alabama in reserve. Trabue's reconnaissance showed the enemy in the woods to his left front, and he moved to attack them.
Trabue advanced the Brigade across a small clearing and into a woodline, where he observed the Federals forming line on the other side of a stream bed. This was McDowell's Brigade of Sherman's Division, which had been in action earlier and was returning to the field. As Trabue maneuvered his Kentuckians against the enemy, the 4th Kentucky found itself opposite the 46th Ohio Infantry, but at an angle. Calmly sitting his horse as if on the parade field, Maj. Thomas B. Monroe skillfully changed the front of his regiment to meet the enemy squarely. The Ohioans fired first, a volley which in their haste flew mostly over the Kentuckians' heads. Now the long hours of drill paid off as the Fourth completed its maneuver and took careful aim at the Federals, only a hundred yards away.
Maj. Monroe kept his men steady, and gave the commands to aim and fire without hurry. The 4th Kentucky's precision fire from their new Enfields crashed home into the Buckeye line. The repeated volleys from the 4th Kentucky devastated the Ohioans, who suffered half their number as casualties during this part of the battle (you can read about this action today on the monument of the 46th Ohio, erected on this spot on the battlefield, near Tour Stop 2). The 6th and 5th/9th regiments were also fighting McDowell's Brigade, inflicting heavy casualties on the 6th Iowa and 13th Missouri Infantry, and after fighting for about an hour and a half, Trabue sensed the enemy's impending collapse. He ordered a bayonet charge down the slope, and with the shrill Rebel Yell streaming from their throats, the Kentuckians charged across the ravine. The Federals broke and ran for their camps in the rear, but failed to make a stand, and retreated toward Pittsburg Landing. Elated with their victory, the Orphans moved forward and through the abandoned Yankee camps. They had indeed "seen the elephant" (Civil War slang for going into combat for the first time), and had come out on top.
Cobb's Battery, meanwhile, did not enjoy the same level of success as the Kentucky infantry. Detached from the Kentucky Brigade, they were moved a couple hundred yards to the east, where they unlimbered in a captured Federal camp and prepared to meet the advance of two brigades in Blue. Lacking proper support, the battery lost most of its horses and nearly forty men in a matter of minutes. A determined rush by the Federals succeeded in overrunning the guns, but they were retaken, and four were successfully removed to the rear. Cobb's Battery had been decimated, and saw no further action that day.
After defeating McDowell's Brigade, Trabue moved the Kentucky infantry cautiously forward, heading east toward the sound of heaviest fighting. Stopping occasionally to engage scattered Federal forces, the Brigade made its way across Tilghman Creek and into the abandoned camp of the 3rd Iowa Infantry, about 5PM. While the Orphans were fighting on the left, the Confederates in the center had run into stiff opposition from Federals along a sunken wagon lane, later to be called the "Hornets' Nest." The Kentuckians found themselves in the rear of the Hornets' Nest as the Federal lines finally broke and the survivors fell back. Trabue placed his Brigade in a blocking position and fired into the Federals, turning them back into their camps and capturing most of the 12th Iowa Infantry. The enemy's captured Enfields were issued to the 6th and 5th/9th regiments, who had not been fully supplied at Burnsville.
It had been a signal day for Kentucky Confederates. Here at the rear of the Hornets' Nest, the triumphant Orphan infantry met their beloved leader, Gen. Breckinridge, at the height of their success. Morgan's Squadron continued to screen the army's left, finally charging an Ohio battery at full gallop, in an unsuccessful attempt to break the final Federal line on their right. Byrne's Battery had formed part of Ruggles' famous artillery line, and helped break the Hornets' Nest with its accurate fire. Reunited with the rest of Breckinridge's force, the Orphans moved toward the river and occupied a bluff overlooking the final Federal line at the landing. Here they were subjected to heavy shell fire from the Federal gunboats Tyler and Lexington. Upon order, Trabue withdrew to the rear to encamp, picking up Byrne's Battery along the way, and passing back along the Purdy Road to occupy the camps of the 46th Ohio and 6th Iowa, whom the Kentuckians had defeated in their first engagement that morning. The Kentuckians spent a damp night in the Federal camps, where the tents had been largely destroyed. But their spirits were buoyed by enjoying the spoils of war, as the enemy had left a large amount of food and other supplies in their hasty retreat of the morning. Sgt. Henry "Unk" Cowling of the 5th/9th Kentucky found a large round cheese, which he carried stuck on his bayonet until his colonel made him throw it away. Gen. Johnston having been killed near the Hornets' Nest, Gen. Beauregard was now in command of the Confederate force. Beauregard was confident that the Federals were defeated, and he fully expected them to retreat during the night. Gen. Grant spent the night not in retreat, but in organizing his scattered forces and the reinforcements from Gen. Buell's army. These he launched in a counterattack first thing on Monday morning, April 7, 1862. Gen. Buell's fresh troops had little trouble dealing with the initial Confederate defense, since Beauregard had done little to reorganize and resupply his forces, in his confidence that Grant would retreat.
As the Federals attacked on Monday morning, Trabue moved the Kentucky Brigade back to the field to meet this threat. As they arrived at the Duncan Field, the Kentuckians found Buell's troops to their front. Trabue placed Byrne's Battery on a slight elevation, where the guns were fought continuously for over an hour, and a third of the men were lost. The Brigade was deployed in support, and was soon moved to the right, toward the heaviest fighting. During this movement, the 4th Kentucky Infantry and 4th Alabama Battalion were detached by Gen. Bragg, and ordered to attack the enemy across the field. In four separate attacks, the Kentuckians and Alabamians moved against vastly superior numbers. The enemy forces included the 5th Kentucky Infantry US (the "Louisville Legion") and the 6th and 9th Kentucky US regiments, and for the first of what would become many occasions during the war, Kentuckian fought Kentuckian.
Attacking without adequate support, the 4th Kentucky suffered their greatest casualties of the battle here in the Duncan Field. Maj. Thomas B. Monroe was killed, and his brother Ben was mortally wounded. Also killed was Gov. George Johnson, fighting in Capt. Ben Monroe's company. Hugh Henry, an Irishman who had served in the British Army at Waterloo, stood to his task in the ranks after repeated wounds, until he, too, was killed. When the day ended, the 4th Kentucky had lost just under fifty percent casualties.
Forced to fall back by the advance of the fresh Federal reinforcements, the Kentuckians regrouped near Shiloh Church, where they fell in with other Confederate units in a final delaying action. Cobb's Battery was again engaged near Water Oaks Pond, but was soon forced to retire. Breckinridge's Corps formed the army's rear guard, and the Kentuckians bivouacked a few miles from Shiloh Church, on the road to Corinth. The next day they moved back to Mickey's House and guarded the Confederate hospitals, assisting Forrest's Cavalry in repelling a Federal attack. Moving back to Corinth, the Orphan Brigade went to work on the trenches in that area.
Shiloh had a devastating effect on the Orphan Brigade, like many other commands. The men had indeed seen the elephant, and it was a rude awakening. Cobb's Battery was nearly shattered, and was forced to make up its losses by the breakup of Byrne's Battery. The 4th Kentucky was at little over half-strength. The other regiments had also suffered severe losses; Johnny Green took the colors of the 5th/9th regiment after the entire color-guard was lost. The Brigade lost nearly 850 men in total. Many men who had enthusiastically gone to war only half a year earlier were now lying in hospitals with shattered limbs, or in Northern prison camps, or dead on the field, awaiting burial in mass graves.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~orphanhm/shiloh.htm