Shiloh Observations

Ole Miss

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Captain Andrew Hickenlooper, commander of 5th Ohio Independent Battery, at the end of day 2 of the Battle of Shiloh was able to retake his encampment that he lost early in the morning of the 1st day. After all of the unimaginable horrors he witnessed, he found the following scene in his recovered tent:

"In my own tent, left standing, had been placed by rebel hands two desperately wounded soldiers, one a
Confederate and the other a Union boy. Side by side they had lain throughout that terrible night, but with the first blush of morn death had come to the relief of one, leaving to still suffer a youthful soldier, clad in blue. As I raised his head and placed my canteen to his parched and bloodless lips, the last faint rays of the setting sun came struggling through the pines and illumined, as with a halo, the face of that dying lad. With silence unbroken, save by the cries and groans of the wounded, came fainter and fainter the labored breath, and more feeble the clasp of that little hand. Suddenly arousing himself, in whispered accents he said : " Tell mother where you found me, on the front line." Vainly did I try to catch from his parting lips the cherished name of that mother. Gently I laid him down, and regretfully left him to a soldier's burial and a nameless grave.

Yet what were his brief sufferings compared to that mother's, who, ignorant of his sad fate, for months, and per haps for years, waited, wept, watched and prayed for his safe return to that distant Northern home, which never again would be cheered by his ringing laugh or boyish pranks.

From this sad scene I passed out into the chilly night, which had woven a misty veil of sulphurous smoke. The chilling dampness prompted me to take the exercise, and charity the labor, of extending a helping hand to some who might still be saved by timely succor; but all too broad the field and great the task. With nerves unstrung and physical endurance at an end, I turned again to find comfort, even in such companionship, and sank to rest — the living with the dead."


I am absolutely amazed by man's ability to find tenderness and love in the midst of war.
Regards
David

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044020050191&view=1up&seq=443&q1=sulphurous
Pages 430-431
 
Is it not odd that these 2 boys mere hours before we doing their best to kill each other now huddled together in the fight to live. This is little scene displays the conundrum that was the American Civil War. Men, and often children, fighting with joined histories and beliefs speaking the same language and yet even in the midst of killing each other compassion emerges. Only in a America is the only expression that I can make
Regards
David
 
I discovered this Ode that Captain Hickenlooper wrote to honor the brave soldiers he fought with and against
Regards
David

"Let us offer a prayer for the hero
Who lies unnamed — 'Unknown';
The private soldier lying
Beneath no costly stone,
Who fought where the foe was strongest,
And after the day was done
Was merely reported ' missing,
'With resting place ' Unknown.' "


Page 438
 
That is what is so striking as you visit the Shiloh National Cemetery with 2,700 plus unknown stones. This was the 1st major battle in the Western Theater and both armies were completely unprepared to handle mass casualties and mass burials

In 1866 the army established the National Cemetery by transferring bodies from other places in Western Tennessee, Northern Alabama and North Mississippi. The acidic soil in the area prevented proper ID of the remains, 4 years after the battle
Regards
David
 
Let's put a face on this accomplished poet. Andrew Hickenlooper

1599361123666.png
 
In 1903 Samuel Ellsworth Kiser published Ballads of the Busy Days

In this book you find the following:

A SONG OF UNKNOWN HEROES.

Let me sing a song for the hero
Who fell unnamed, unknown—
The common soldier, lying
Beneath no costly stone —
Who fought where the foe was strongest
And, after the day was done.
Was merely among “the missing
Three hundred and sixty-one."

Let me sing a song for the hero
Who knelt at the rail to pray
While the boats with the weeping women
And children were rowed away—
Who, being a man and gifted
With the strength God gives to men.
Was one of the “hundred sailors"
Who will ne'er tread decks again.

Let me sing a song for the hero
Who weary, wasted, wan—
With disease and the world against him—
Toiled hopefully, bravely on—
Who, robbed of earth's choicest pleasures—
Could smile as he worked away.
And lies with the unnamed millions
Awaiting the Judgment Day.

Let me sing the song of the heroes
Who died unknown, unnamed.
And my song shall be of the bravest
That Death and the grave e'er claimed!
And my song shall live the longest
Of all the songs e'er sung.
And still be the song of heroes
When the last sad knell is rung!

—-S. E. Kiser

https://books.google.com/books?id=F...#v=onepage&q="song of unknown heroes"&f=false
 
@HeroPrentiss. Were you aware that Andrew Hickenlooper was a great fan of General Prentiss? I have a couple of quotes from him below were he mentions and provides a quote praising Prentiss.
Regards
David

When the battery reached this position I was brought into closer touch and more intimate relations with General Prentiss ; had more time to contemplate his restless energy and terrible earnestness ; saw the long line of determined men extending to the right and left as far as the eye could reach ; observed regiments moving to the front instead of to the rear; heard the quick, sharp commands as troops were hurried into position, and felt the influences of the death-like stillness that prevailed throughout the command. I realized" that it was the end of fighting by detachments, and that there was being made a systematic concentration for a mighty, and possibly conclusive, struggle between the whole of the con tending forces, in which we would have to accept and bear our full share of its burdens and responsibilities.*

GENERAL PRENTISS SURRENDERS.
The day wore on, gradually weakening our powers of resistance; the line was slowly melting away; our ammunition, several times replenished, was nearly exhausted, and the rebel lines could be plainly seen crossing the " peach orchard " in our rear, toward the only road over which escape seemed possible. It was then General Prentiss informed me that he feared it was too late for him to make the attempt to withdraw his infantry, but that I must pull out, and, if pos sible, reach the reserves, or forces forming in the rear. I bade the General — as brave a little man as ever lived — good-by, and, under whip and spur, the remnant of our bat tery dashed down the road, barely escaping capture. He remained with his devoted followers, and with them accepted captivity rather than abandon the position he had been ordered to hold to the last. **


Hickenlooper quoted General Buell from a Century Magazine article:

‘Prentiss" vigilance gave the first warning of the actual danger, and in fact commenced the contest. On Saturday, disquieted by the frequent appearance of the enemy's cavalry, he increased his pickets, though he had no evidence of a large force. Early Sunday morning one of these picket guards, startled no doubt by the hum of forty thousand men half a mile distant waking up for battle, went forward to ascer tain its cause, and soon came upon the enemy's pickets, which it promptly attacked. It was then a quarter past 5 o'clock, and all things being ready, the Confederate General accepted the signal, and at once gave orders to advance.

Previously, however, General Prentiss, still apprehensive, had sent forward Colonel Moore, of the Twenty-first Missouri, with five companies, to strengthen the picket guard. On the way out Colonel Moore met the guard returning to camp with a number of its men killed and wounded. Sending the latter on to camp, and calling for the remainder of his regiment, he proceeded to the front in time to take a good position on the border of a cleared field, and opened fire upon the enemy's skirmishers, checking them for a while, but the main body forced him back upon the division with a considerable list of wounded.

This spirited beginning, unexpected on both sides, gave the first alarm to the divisions of Sherman and Prentiss. The latter promptly formed his division at the first news from the front, and moved a quarter of a mile in advance of his camp, where he was attacked before Sherman was under arms.

With the rawest troops in the army, his vigilance gave the earliest warning of the magnitude of the danger, and offered absolute resist ance to its approach; that, though overwhelmed and broken in the advance, he rallied in effective force in the line of Hurlbut and Wallace, and firmly held his ground until completely surrounded and overpowered."***


*Sketches of War History, 1861-1865;
Papers Read Before the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 1883 Volume 5
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044020050191&view=1up&seq=430&q1=400
Page 418

**421-422

***468-469
 
In the second part of his Shiloh article Captain Hickenlooper gentles gives a mild chastening of Grant and Sherman for being surprised by the Confederates and praises Prentiss for his alertness and prompt actions which helped stem the Rebel advance.
Interesting reading to say the least.
Regards
David
Sketches of War History, 1861-1865;
Papers Read Before the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 1883 Volume 5
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044020050191&view=1up&seq=430&q1=400
Pages 439-
 
I just had to post this quote for you @HeroPrentiss
Regards
David

Had Beauregard been given three or four hours more of daylight, is it not possible that he would have won the fight? Is it not certain that the Confederate advance was delayed for twice this length of time at the "Hornets' Nest" by the heroism of General Prentiss and his Sixth Division?

Had not Prentiss, without orders from his superiors, sent his gallant Colonel Moore by a night march far to the front ; and had not the Fifth Battery, in thundering tones, awakened the slumbering camps in the rear; had not Prentiss held to the "Hornets' Nest" for eight long hours, repulsing repeated desperate assaults, is it not probable that General Johnston would not only have "watered his horses in the Tennessee," but in the course of a brief period of time would have quenched his own thirst in the Ohio?

Similar devotion to duty upon the part of General George H. Thomas at the battle of Chickamauga gave him the credit of saving the Army of the Cumberland, and the enduring title of "The Rock of Chickamauga."

For identically the same reason, I claim for General B. M. Prentiss the title of

"The Savior of the Army of the Tennessee at Sh1loh, Apr1l 6th, 1862."
*
*Pages 482-483
 
To the Unknown Dead in the Shiloh National Cemetery

Sleep on, thou unknown dead,
Thy troubled days now end in night.
A night secure from all alarms,
Where ye are safe from all that harms;
Oh! blessed night, where all is bright!

Sleep on, thou unknown dead!
What matter that ye are unknown.
What matter that no names appear
Above your graves so quiet here.
Where ye are gone, your deeds are known.

Sleep on, thou unknown dead!
Your deeds are known, though ye are not;
Your faith that led you to the field,
Your courage that would never yield,
Through this broad land are not forgot.

Sleep on, thou unknown dead!
Ye gave your lives, but not in vain;
Your work made brighter all this land,
Since now in freedom all can stand,
And view results your toil did gain.

~ Shadrach C. Bond
St. Louis, Mo., August 1895

The poem was published in The Sunny South. (Atlanta, Ga.), October 05, 1895, page 10. The author, Shadrach Cuthbert Bond (1847-1929), was the grandson of Shadrach Bond (1773-1832) who was the first Governor of Illinois.
1599453835023.png

FindAGrave
 
Thanks for sharing this awesome article.. as with all wars not just the Civil War most Cemetery’s are filled with graves of the “Unknown”. When I go to visit a cemetery and see a headstone with no name on it only unknown you begin to wonder who is lying there in rest. Who son, daughter, mother, father or a soldier.. Hollowed Ground!
 
Andrew Hickenlooper trivia -

He was on the roster of the original Cincinnati Baseball Club, 1866-1871, later known as the Cincinnati Reds. Like his friend Lt. Col. Ozro J. Dodds of the 1st Alabama Cavalry (U.S.), Hickenlooper was involved in organizing the team and though both of their names appear on the lengthy roster, they never played an inning in an actual game. See the roster on pages 115-122 on the link listed below. There are a number of other Civil War veterans on the roster, recognize anyone?

 
Tom that is very interesting as it seems Hickenlooper was a man of many talents. Soldier, politician, businessman and sports promoter! He was a brave man well respected by his peers.
Regards
David
 
General Grant's experience at Shiloh was the defining one of his life yet little known is how close he came to being wounded perhaps seriously. Here is his description of the event where he was hit.
Regards
David

"During this second day of the battle I had been moving from right to left and back, to see for myself the progress made. In the early part of the afternoon, while riding with Colonel McPherson and Major Hawkins, then my chief commissary, we got beyond the left of our troops. We were moving along the northern edge of a clearing, very leisurely, toward the river above the landing. There did not appear to be an enemy to our right, until suddenly a battery with musketry opened upon us from the edge of the woods on the other side of the clearing. The shells and balls whistled about our ears very fast for about a minute. I do not think it took us longer than that to get out of range and out of sight. In the sudden start we made, Major Hawkins lost his hat. He did not stop to pick it up. When we arrived at a perfectly safe position we halted to take an account of damages. McPherson's horse was panting as if ready to drop. On examination it was found that a ball had struck him forward of the flank just back of the saddle, and had gone entirely through. In a few minutes the poor beast dropped dead; he had given no sign of injury until we came to a stop. A ball had struck the metal scabbard of my sword, just below the hilt, and broken it nearly off; before the battle was over it had broken off entirely. There were three of us: one had lost a horse, killed; one a hat and one a sword-scabbard. All were thankful that it was no worse. "

Memoirs of U. S. Grant
Chapter XXV
 
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