Shiloh Observations

Andrew Hickenlooper’s reminiscences about Shiloh and General Prentiss show his admiration for Prentiss and he was there. The fight for Hickenlooper and Prentiss started around 6 a. m. and lasted for sure ten hours and maybe a little longer before Prentiss released Hickenlooper to save the last four guns of his battery. They were together just that one memorable day.

But Prentiss never forgot Hickenlooper as evident by Hickenlooper’s inclusion of the following: Pages 422-423.

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 possible, 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 battery 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.

He remained a prisoner of war for nearly a year, and, though our personal acquaintance was limited to that one day's association, he evidently retained a kindly remembrance of that experience, for in his official report, written after his return from captivity, he said:

"Captain A. Hickenlooper, of the Fifth Ohio Battery, by his gallant conduct commended himself to general praise."

And, sixteen years later, during the political canvass of 1879, he wrote as follows:

"Kirkville, Mo., July 21, 1879.

"General A. Hickenlooper, Cincinnati, Ohio:

"Dear Sir: — I address this letter to you for information, you being a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Ohio.

"Please inform me at once if you are the same Hickenlooper that commanded a battery at Shiloh, and rendered such efficient aid to me in holding the rebels in check in Sunday's fight. My reason for seeking this information is that if you are the same man, I shall take great pleasure in doing what I can to help you; and if it were not for being in ill health, I would at once proceed to Ohio and give at least one month's services in behalf of one I have always remembered since the 6th of April, 1862, as a most gallant, brave and efficient officer, all of which applies to the Hickenlooper whom I knew so well on that eventful day.

"Yours truly,

"B. M. Prentiss,

"Late Major General Volunteers."


Andrew Hickenlooper ran for Lt. Governor of Ohio as the Republican candidate in 1879. (Unlike his great grandson, John, who is the Democratic candidate for senator in Colorado this year) Although Prentiss did not go to Ohio to campaign for Hickenlooper his letter was used by Hickenlooper to dispel charges made by campaign materials put out by the Democratic opposition that Hickenlooper showed the white feather at Shiloh. Hickenlooper printed a seven-page brochure titled “General Hickenlooper at the Battle of Shiloh.” Hickenlooper started with segments from Prentiss’s official report and followed it with the letter from Prentiss. After escaping the Hornets’ Nest, Hickenlooper went into Sherman’s line and earned a mention in Sherman’s official report.

Hickenlooper included letters from some members of the battery who refuted the absurd claim that Hickenlooper was a coward. Three sentences written by J. F. Blackburn are worthy to note. Blackburn was a Lt. and commanded the two-gun section of Hickenlooper’s battery at Spain Field that met the initial onslaught and might have been the guns that killed General Gladden. With most of the horses dead and men wounded Prentiss ordered the two guns abandoned.

Blackburn wrote “You know, I know, and a hundred other living witnesses know, that Captain Hickenlooper was with the battery every minute of that bloody Sunday’s fight at Shiloh. A soldier’s reputation is his dearest possession, and we owe it to ourselves, and to each other, to contradict this lie, as promptly as we know that H. (Hickenlooper) would silence any slanderer who might anonymously make a similar charge against us. No phase that our personal relations ever assumed will justify us in being silent when our names are used to bolster up so foul a slander.”

Hickenlooper closed the brochure with the following paragraph:

I regret exceedingly that the Democratic party finds it necessary to resort to the official circulation of this class of literature: but for every such unmanly thrust, or assassin-like stab, hundreds of old soldiers, and conservative thinking Democrats, will spring from their ranks to defend the honor and reputation of their country’s soldiery.”

Hickenlooper won the election and served a two-year term. The brochure was found at the Newbarry Library in Chicago.

As noted Hickenlooper was an accomplished man and his opinion of General Prentiss is reflected in his Shiloh history. Some details are incorrect but he was there.

Thanks to @OleMiss for the posts showing Hickenlooper’s praise for Prentiss - as brave a little man as ever lived.

Prentiss has other fans who were at Shiloh. Here are a few.

In September 1846, during the Mexican War, a company from La Salle County of the 2nd Illinois regiment lost its captain when T. Lyle Dickey resigned due to poor health. William Hervey Lamme Wallace was the lieutenant. The company selected Benjamin Prentiss from the 1st Illinois to be their new captain and Wallace became the regiment’s adjutant. Wallace wrote to some friends “Our Company is now commanded by Captain Prentiss, the late Adjutant, and the best officer in the two regiments.” Almost sixteen years later these two men fought side-by-side as division commanders in the Sunken Road at Shiloh. (Isabel Wallace, Life and Letters of General W. H. L. Wallace, page 20)

Brigadier General Stephen Hurlbut, 4th division commander, official report – April 12, 1862 – “As we drew near the rear and left of General Prentiss’ line his regiments, in broken masses, drifted through my advance, that gallant officer making every effort to rally them.

Colonel Francis Quinn, 12th Michigan, official report – April 9, 1862 – “At this time General Prentiss must have been taken prisoner. He was a brave man, and cheered his men to duty during the whole day. Where the fight was thickest and danger the greatest there was he found, and his presence gave renewed confidence.”

Capt J. J. Geer was captured by rebels during the skirmish on April 4, 1862. He wrote a book, Beyond the Lines: A Yankee Prisoner Loose in Dixie, published in 1863. He wrote about meeting General Prentiss.

“I soon formed an agreeable acquaintance with General Prentiss, who was taken prisoner on Sunday, April 6, 1862 at Shiloh. It had generally been reported that the General had surrendered early in the morning; but this was false, for I now learned that he did not give up until five o’clock in the afternoon, thus holding at least five or six times his own number in check the whole of that dreadful day. Without doubt, history will do the gallant hero justice; for on that bloody field he displayed coolness and heroism seldom equaled, and never excelled.”

“I found General Prentiss not one of your half-hearted war men, who fight conditionally, but a whole-souled patriot, who would destroy the institution that is the root of the war. He would not see the glorious banner trailed in the dust to uphold a few Southern aristocrats in perpetuating their horrid system of human bondage.”


Geer had been a minister for 10 years and I think we are seeing that in his language. He was also a member of a Temperance movement but we won’t hold that against him. He continued:

“General Prentiss was kind and affable to all around him, and among fifteen hundred men of his command with whom I freely conversed, there was not one who did not love and respect him.”


Lieut. S. D. Thompson wrote Recollections with the Third Iowa Infantry published in 1864. Thompson had a front-row seat as the rebels assailed Prentiss’s last stand line west of Wicker Field after Prentiss had repositioned his men from the Sunken Road.

At the time of interest the 3rd Iowa was commanded by Major Stone, Prentiss’s line had been refused and ran pretty much north to south and the left flank was held by the 23rd Missouri. Thompson wrote:

“General Prentiss was now to our right with five regiments of Smith’s division, endeavoring to hold the enemy in check. He rode up to the Major and explained to him what he was trying to do—to hold the enemy in check, if possible, till the army could again form in the rear, or till night should put an end to the battle. He asked the Major to assist him, and that our regiment should become his left. The Major readily assented, and agreed to obey his orders.” (May Major Stone forever be remembered for this show of duty. As a result Major Stone was captured. Note that Thompson said that Prentiss gained Stone’s assistance by asking him, not ordering him)

“Here, then, if the spectacle of the field was appalling, it was sublime. Six regiments disputing the field with the enemy’s army, and delaying his expected triumph. He crowded furiously on, assailing us in front and flank, his soldiers howling with mingled exultation and rage, their voices rising even above the din of battle. He no longer came in lines nor in columns, but in confused masses, broken in pursuit as our army had been in retreat. His missiles swept the field in all directions. Our dead fell thickly. Our wounded streamed to the rear. We no longer had lines of battle, but fought in squads and clusters. The settling smoke obscured the vision. Comrades knew not who stood or fell. All was confusion and chaos around us.”

“A mass of the enemy broke the regiment on our right and separated us from Prentiss. We were again compelled to retreat.”

“Soon after, General Prentiss retreating with the remainder of his troops, came upon our camp ground, and looking forward, saw the gap closed through which he had hoped to escape. Exposed to a concentrated fire from all sides, his regiments completely broken, there was no alternative but to surrender…”

“The capture of General Prentiss affords a most striking example of the reward the most meritorious conduct may sometimes receive at the hands of public opinion. Because he held the field with a handful of troops, regardless of the number against him, and finally retreated, not to escape danger, but, when he saw the enemy surrounding him, to escape capture;--because he was thus willing to sacrifice himself, if necessary, to hold the enemy in check and save the army, the imputation of cowardice was cast upon him and the brave men who were captured with him. His fault consisted alone in not knowing when to retreat; theirs in obeying their general too well.”



Joseph Rich in The Battle of Shiloh, 1911 on pages 71 and 72 described the surrender:

And for some time before the surrender took place, a few minutes before six o’clock, rifle-fire poured in from three directions, as the beleaguered faced about and attempted to fight their way out. The number to surrender was about 2,000 men. The importance of this prolonged contest, from a little before ten forenoon to nearly six afternoon, upon the destinies of the day can hardly be estimated. It secured to General Grant’s army the thing most needed – time form the new line; time for Lew Wallace, for Buell, and for Night to come. The Hornets’ Nest was distinctly an altar of sacrifice.


Joseph Rich fought in the Hornets’ Nest with the 12th Iowa.

Manning Force published in 1881 From Fort Henry to Corinth. On page 146 he wrote the following:

Groups and squads of Prentiss’ men succeeded in making their way out before the circle wholly closed. Prentiss, with the remaining fragments of the two divisions, facing the fire that surrounded them, made a desperate struggle. But further resistance was hopeless and was useless. Prentiss, having never swerved from the position he was ordered to hold, having lost everything but honor, surrendered the little band.

It was Andrew Hickenlooper who persuaded Benjamin Prentiss to finally break his twenty year silence and speak about Shiloh. Pages 471-473.

It is a commendable fact that, though undoubtedly greatly distressed by the maliciously false statements of the conduct of his division circulated by the newspapers of the country, coupled with unjust criticisms of fellow officers, who thus endeavored to find excuses for their own delinquencies, not a single harsh or unkind retort is to be found in his

whole report. Further than this, though appealed to time and again, he absolutely refused to "talk for publication," until twenty years later he was invited by the Cincinnati Society of Ex-Army and Navy Officers to be its guest of honor at a banquet given at the Burnet House, on the evening of January 12th, 1882, at which over one hundred of the most prominent military men of the country were seated.

The welcome address was delivered by Colonel George Ward Nichols, in substance as follows:

"As soldiers and sailors we welcome you, and our hearts beat strong with greetings to him who, on the fateful field of Shiloh, might have said, as did the Scottish chieftain —

"Come one, come all! This rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I."

Those who best serve must stand and wait until the passing years bring justice and recognition.

Let us then, here to-night as best we may, lay the laurel wreath of honorable fame at the feet of General B. M. Prentiss."


Prentiss was then given an introduction by Manning Force.

In responding to this earnestly expressed and heartfelt welcome, General Prentiss said:

Hickenlooper did not include the following paragraph from Prentiss’s speech so I inserted it.

My friends, I say to you frankly to-night, Cincinnati is the only locality that I have ever met that seems to understand and seems to have caught the true history of Shiloh. (Applause.) Why so, I can not tell. Nevertheless, it is true. We have learned that history would be corrected. I have waited until this time, and this occasion has come. I am a happy man to-night, feeling that I am with friends. I shall never forget my trip to Cincinnati, and, sir (to Gen. Hickenlooper) when you notified me, I say in the presence of your immediate friends, no other living man could have got me here than Gen. Hickenlooper. (Tremendous cheering and applause.) I knew you there (on the battle field) and I know you here.

"In response to the still general inquiry, ' Was our army surprised at Shiloh?' I can only reply for myself that I had not the slightest idea that a general engagement was to be fought on that day.

We were not prepared on the morning of the 6th of April, but admonished by the actions of the enemy on Friday evening, I had advanced and strengthened my picket line in my front, and placed it under command of the gallant Colonel Moore, from whom I received the message that the enemy was advancing.

The entire division was at once prepared for action, and lines established in front of our camps; and it was here, upon this trying

occasion, I became intimately acquainted with your fellow townsman, General Hickenlooper, as gallant a soldier as ever fought on any field.

After two and one-half hours of terrible fighting we were com pelled to give way and retire to another position about a quarter of a mile in the rear, where nature seemed to have prepared an excel lent defensive line in an old roadway, where, about 9 o'clock, General Grant congratulated me upon the position, and in a pleasant, cheerful way, commanded me ' to hold it.'

I did hold it from that hour until 5 =30 p. m. against the most fearful cannonading and repeated assaults to which any troops have ever been subjected, so stinging in its effects that the Confederates named it the ' Hornets' Nest.' It was the only place in which I have ever witnessed a hand to hand struggle, and it was here, General Hickenlooper, you so gallantly sustained your position and elicited my admiration and respect, which have outlived the lapse of time, some twenty years, since then until now.

Let it not be said again that General Prentiss' division was captured early in the morning; but I have now no harsh words to utter, and have forgotten those that were applied to me."


As noted the audience was over one hundred of the most prominent military men of the country and they were all Prentiss fans.

One final fan:

In 1890 James Price, Capt. of Company K, 18th​ Missouri applied for a pension and requested an affidavit from Jesse Abel as a witness to Price’s service. The two men fought with Prentiss in the Hornets’ Nest at Shiloh. It was that experience Abel wrote about in the affidavit dated July 3, 1890.

“I was a corporal in Company K, 18 Mo. Volunteer Infantry at the time of the battle of Shiloh. Jas. A. Price was the Captain of that company. Toward evening of the 6th of April 1862, the day of the battle I was with Capt. Price when hero (emphasis by me) Genl Prentiss rode by and told Capt. Price that if he ever expected to get out of his position he must get out within five minutes, as the enemy were then on both flanks and in our rear. Genl Prentiss rode on and in less than five minutes was made a prisoner. After considerable persuasion Capt. Price was induced to leave his position and attempt to escape through the rebel forces which were fast closing around us. The Captain and myself and fifteen others were all of our company together at this time. 12 of us ??? that escaped capture, and in fact nearly all of Gen. Prentiss command that escaped. No braver man ever looked into the muzzles of Rebel muskets than Capt. James A. Price. I was with him in the times that tried mens souls and I know whereof I speak.”

Jesse A. Abel

(Found in the James A. Price papers, State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri)

Twenty-eight years after the battle and Abel was still a fan of @HeroPrentiss.
 
Battle_of_Shiloh_Thulstrup.jpg

Swedish artist Thure De Thulstrup honors both Hickenlooper and Prentiss in this Louis Prang & Co. turn-of-the-Twentieth Century print depicting the defense of the Hornet's Nest: Prentiss is the mounted officer at right seen here behind Hickenlooper's Battery.
 
The old adage "Two sides to every story" is often used in relating of war stories by old soldiers especially in their twilight years as time seems to eve out the rough edges but not always. General William Sooy Smith commanded the 14th Division in the Army of the Ohio at Shiloh and was very detailed in his comments regarding the performance of one of his regiments in the battle.

At the Illinois Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States in
October 13, 1892, he shared the following excerpt form his address. It is very specific in censoring this particular regiment though he does not mention them by name it is fairly easy to determine their identity.
Regards
David

"At the battle of Shiloh, on the second day, my brigade consisted of four regiments, three of which were in line, and one was in reserve in a sheltered position a couple of hundred yards to the rear. On our right was Barnett’s Battery, supported by my strongest regiment. This regiment had just come to the front a full thousand strong. (14th Wisconsin) It was perfectly green, and without drill, discipline, or experience. It had received its arms but a few days or weeks before the battle; but this I did not know, as it was assigned to my brigade only the day before the fight. In the morning we were fiercely attacked by the enemy, and this regiment broke and ran away in spite of every effort that could be made to rally it. Barnett’s Battery was left without support, and was for a time in imminent danger of capture. My reserve regiment, numbering about five hundred men, was brought up as quickly as possible, and took its place in the line, opening fire just in time to repulse the enemy. I saw nothing more of my big regiment of raw recruits during the fight. A year or two after the war closed, I saw in the principal hotel of a neighboring city a large picture representing a regiment charging in gallant style. It alignment was perfect, and all its company and field officers were in their proper places. And what was my surprise when I read the legend, “Gallant charge of the ----- regiment at the battle of Shiloh,” the very regiment whose conduct I have described!
Later in the day it was the good fortune of my brigade to capture Standiford’s Mississippi Battery of six guns. We bivouacked on the field that night about the position that had been occupied by this battery. The next morning it was found that two of the guns had disappeared. Search was made for them, and it was discovered that one of the pieces had gone to replace a gun that had been lost by one of our batteries during the first day’s fight. No trace of the other could be found; but I have since been informed that it is now at the Capitol of the State from which my big regiment came, bearing the inscription, “Captured at the Battle of Shiloh,” by this very regiment. I could perhaps pardon the conduct of the regiment on the field; but the lying picture and the theft are without excuse or palliation. And yet, without knowledge of the facts, hundred and thousands of people have doubtless given to this regiment the homage of their admiration and gratitude."


The Unremembered Soldier
By
William Sooy Smith, Late Brigadier General, U.S. Volunteers
Insignia Number 8295, Illinois Commandery
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
Read October 13, 1892
 
Following the adage mentioned above here is the 14th Wisconsin's actions as described by the
state authorities
Regards
David

"The 14th Wisconsin Infantry, although arriving too late to take part in the action on the first day of the battle, played a role in Grant’s counterassault of April 7. The 14th Wisconsin arrived at Pittsburg landing just after 11:00 p.m. on April 6, and camped for the night, having missed the initial Confederate attack. The next morning it moved into position opposite a Confederate artillery emplacement located on a bit of elevated ground with deep ravines to its front. After being driven back from their position by a determined Confederate infantry charge, the raw recruits of the 14th rallied and were ordered to take the Confederate battery. Crossing a clear field, the resolute Badgers charged up the hill and overran the rebels. During the melee, Lieutenant George Staley of the 14th Wisconsin disabled one of the Confederate cannon tubes of William L. Harper’s Mississippi Battery by driving a priming wire into the vent and snapping it off. Possession of the gun was brief as Confederate infantry positioned to the rear of the battery moved forward to pour “a storm of lead” upon the 14th. Under galling fire, the 14th fell back to within 330 yards of their original position. The Badgers, however, were not to be denied. It took two more assaults upon the position, but in the end the men of the 14th drove the Confederates from the field. Staley’s cannon, a New Orleans-made six-pounder, was recovered and, despite a false claim of ownership from an Ohio regiment, it was sent to Madison as a war trophy "

2015-2016 Wisconsin Blue Book: Chapter 2 - Feature Article, Wisconsin in the Civil War
Page 128
 
Here are some observations by Surgeon Horace Wardner of the 12th Illinois Infantry. His unit was in W.H.L. Wallace's 2nd Division and Colonel McArthur's 2nd Brigade which was heavily engaged on the Federal left Sunday, April 6. Dr. Wardner was a very busy man attending to the wounded till late in the evening of Monday.
Regards
David

"...A day or two later, on the bright Sunday morning of April 6, the Battle of Shiloh began. Orders came releasing both Chetlain and McArthur from arrest and restoring them to their respective commands.

Our brigade was ordered to the support of our left, some three or four miles from our camp. The first line of battle was formed on a plantation to the right and rear of General Sherman's camp. A large body of our cavalry was in line in front of us near the timber. I was furnished with a detail of one man from each company. Taking possession of an old log building, to be used as an emergency hospital, and leaving a detail to put it in order, I rode to the front. The first case requiring my attention on that battlefield was a surgeon. I was standing near an ambulance, in company with Doctor Roscotten from Peoria, when a shell from one of the enemy's batteries fell beneath one of the horses attached to the ambulance and exploded, killing that horse and also Doctor Roscotten's horse. In falling the Doctor's foot was caught beneath the horse and seriously injured. The Doctor was carried of the field by my men.

During this time the regiment was ordered farther to the left. As I did not observe the change at the time, it became my duty to find their position. In doing so we had to pass through an open wood. We could see no one. Our troops had got into line and lain down in some hazel brush, as I afterwards ascertained. The small detail with me was the only part of our forces visible in that locality at that time. One of the enemy's batteries paid its compliments to us in the form of three or four rifled shells, which passed over our heads, bursting a short distance beyond us. As each succeeding shell came down nearer to our heads and directly over us we concluded they were firing with malice aforethought. We lay down out of sight, therefore, and the firing ceased. Resuming our search for the regiment under cover of a little bluff we soon found its location, selected a spot protected by a low bluff as a rendezvous for the wounded, and notified the regiment where we could be found in case of need.

Scarcely had I got back to the rendezvous when our line was attacked and the regiment in vigorous action. Wounded men came or were brought back to the number of ten or a dozen', hurriedly dressed and sent on to the central rendezvous at the Landing. Captain Swain, of Company H, was shot through the abdomen and came to me with his bowels protruding. He died a few days later on his way home. The enemy's bullets came in volleys over our heads, until it was evident our lines were retreating. We moved away under cover of the bluff, so as to get out of the range of the enemy's guns. We then took to higher ground, and could see the enemy near the brow of the bluff that had protected us. It was a question of a few moments as to whether we should be prisoners or not. The regiment was gone, we knew not where. Going to the general rendezvous for the disabled at the Landing, I was assigned to the duty of operating upon and dressing the wounded. There were four thousand of them there at that time.
Near sunset I was working over a brave soldier, whose right arm was maimed in a fearful manner. A citizen physician from Chicago, who had come with the sanitary commission, attempted to assist by administering chloroform. Just as he began, the rebel sharpshooters commenced firing at a battery Colonel Webster had planted between us and the enemy's lines to protect the Landing. Every wounded man who could move went scrambling over the bluff for protection. I saw one poor fellow, whose leg had been amputated, on his back, holding up the stump of his limb, and working his way over the edge of the bluff. We got behind a large oak tree and again attempted the dressing of the wounded limb. At that moment the gunboat, under command of Captain Shirk, began firing heavy shells up a ravine at the enemy. The boat was about a hundred yards from us. At every discharge of the gun the doctor would drop as if he had been shot. The soldier laughed at him. The doctor said "he could not help it." I had to be my own assistant in finishing the amputation.

An amusing thing occurred while we were on this bank. A demoralized cavalryman came rushing down and attempted to swim his horse across the river. After proceeding about fifty yards the horse threw up his nose, let his body down nearly perpendicular, turned about, and struck out to return to the shore. As the man slid into the water from the back of the horse he caught the animal by the tail, and was towed back to the landing. The ducking cooled his excitement. Mounting the horse he rode quietly off in search of his comrades.

As night came on, dark clouds arose, and a heavy rain set in. As many of the wounded had been taken aboard of the boats as possible, so I went on board one of the boats to render what assistance I could. On the hurricane deck I found a soldier bleeding from a badly shattered arm. A reputation was necessary to save his life. With the light of one tallow candle, which a drunken assistant held and protected from the wind as best he could, I amputated and dressed the arm. The next morning I was gratified to find my patient doing well and able to walk about.
Under orders from the medical director, I remained at the rendezvous during the second day of the battle, standing over the operating table until five o'clock in the afternoon. About eleven o'clock a young officer came rushing in, calling for the surgeon. I gave him a seat. He began shaking his foot, saying "Take it off, it will have to go." "Where is your regiment ?" I asked. "All cut to pieces, I think I am the only man alive." Upon examination it was found that a small shot, probably buckshot, had passed through the fleshy part of his little toe. I afterwards learned he was the only man in his regiment who was hurt. In marching to an assigned position, the regiment had been fired upon from ambush by the enemy. The surprise so demoralized the men that they took to their heels. Fortunately the firing of the enemy was too low for any serious results. This young officer informed me that my regiment had gone back to the camp at evening of the first day's fight. I also learned that while the men were preparing supper a shell had fallen in the quarters of Company K and exploded, killing one man and wounding several, two of whom each lost a leg as a result.
At five o'clock I was relieved of duty at the rendezvous, and hastened to the regimental camp to the care of the wounded men. The Battle of Shiloh was won. The field was ours, with its ghastly scenes and relics of the deadly strife.

There has been a good deal of discussion over the question of a surprise on the first morning of the battle. So far as we were concerned it was a surprise. Our immediate commanders were in arrest on account of a trifling affair. Our regiment was wholly unprepared for battle. After the battle opened, our officers had to draw clothing, arms, and accoutrements for the men before going into action. General Grant says in his Memoirs, page 333 of Volume I.: 4, "The fact is, I regarded the campaign as an offensive one, and had no idea that the enemy would leave strong entrenchments to take the initiative, when he knew he would be attacked where he was if he remained." Be that, however, as it may, the result was satisfactory to the Union cause, and disastrous to the enemy. Success is the measure of merit the world over."


Reminiscences of a Surgeon
By
Surgeon and Bvt LT COL Horace Wardner
Original Member of the Illinois Commandery
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
Read April 12, 1894
 
The gunboats Tyler and Lexington played a part in the Battle of Shiloh but as to how important a part has been discussed for over 158 years. However in the opinion of one sailor there was no doubt as witnessed by this quote:
"think it may be said in the light of all the testimony that Grant and his army were saved at Shiloh by the gunboats."
W.H.C. Michael had not doubts about the role of the gunboats in the ACW and expressed his ideas in this paper read before the Nebraska Commandery of the MOLLUS
Regards
David

"Opportunity to serve that General and his army, much in the same manner as at Belmont, presented itself April 6th. That they performed their duty well is attested by the reports of both commanding officers, as also others officers who watched with eagerness the fortunes of the first day at Pittsburg Landing. Grant says: "At a ate hour in the afternoon a desperate attempt was made to turn our left and get possession of the landing, transports, etc. This point was guarded by the gunboats. And in repulsing the enemy much is due to them." Unfortunately he does not say how much. Those who met the terrific and maddened onslaught of the enemy on the left, and who know that they could not have maintained their position without the aid of the gunboats, are competent to testify. General Hurlburt, who commanded on the extreme left, in his report says: "From my own observation and the statement of prisoners the fire of the gunboats was most effectual in stopping the advance of the enemy on Sunday afternoon and night."
The absolute truth is, the Tyler lay with her broadside at the month of the ravine upon which the extreme left of our army rested, and when the enemy hurled their dense ranks into this depression to reach our sadly weakened line she rained shell and cannister and shrapnel upon him so thick and fast that he withdrew precipitately, leaving his dead and dying piled one upon the other in the ravine. Those who saw that winrow of mangled human forms after the battle needed no other proof of the awful havoc wrought by the fire of the gunboats at that critical moment.. Beauregard says in his report: "The enemy broke and sought refuge behind a commanding eminence covering Pittsburg Landing, not more than a half mile distant, under cover of the gunboats, which kept up a fierce and annoying fire with shot and shell of the heaviest description." He gives as his reason for his army being unable to withstand the onslaught of our boys the next day to be that, "during the night after the first day's fighting, the enemy broke the men's rest by a discharge at measured intervals of heavy shells thrown from the gunboats." In other place he refers to the Union army as "sheltered by such an auxiliary as their gunboats." The impression among the Confederates was that the two gunboats saved Grant's army from capture. And our boys, who laid on the banks of the Tennessee in the rain and mud throughout that awful Sunday night, will not withhold the statement that the screech of the 64-pound shells from the Tyler and Lexington, as they flew over their heads into the disturbed ranks of the enemy, was a sweet lullaby to them; that they felt secure for the time under the guns of the black watchdogs that moved up and down the river close behind them all that long night. I think it may be said in the light of all the testimony that Grant and his army were saved at Shiloh by the gunboats."


The Mississippi Flotilla
By
W.H.C. Michael, Late U.S. Navy
Nebraska Commandery
Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States
Read October 6, 1886
 
The question of who was responsible for sending out the Federal scouting companies early on Sunday morning when the Confederates were 1st detected. Union soldiers fired at the Rebel Pickets in Wool Field just mintues before 5 am.

General Prentiss or Colonel Evertt Peabody? The author of the commets below leaves no doubt who he beleives was the Union savior that Sunday morning.
Regards
David

Lieutenant James M. Newhard says that “the part taken by the Twenty-fifth Missouri in the battle of Shiloh has never been correctly written ;

...Captain Schmidt; Company H, Captain Dill, and Company E, Captain Evans, we went out before day- light on Sunday morning, April 6th, under command of our noble little Major Powell. We quietly passed through our single line of pickets a short distance in front of our camp guard, drove in Johnston's pickets, and fell onto his whole army about a mile and a half from our camp. They had laid on their arms during the night, ready to attack us first in the morning.

"We sounded their reveille by opening up fire on them, and it was not many minutes before that whole army of 65,000 men were in motion and the ' woods were full of them.' We stood long- enough for most of the men to use up their forty rounds of ammunition, which, with the hot volleys they turned loose on us, gave good and convincing warning to our slumbering army to 'fall in' on short notice.

...Even our skeptical General Prentiss shook himself out of his blankets when he heard the racket, and was shortly convinced that Colonel Peabody was right
when he said the evening- before that he believed Johnston was moving on us and would likely attack in the morning, which at that time Prentiss would not listen to.

..."Colonel Peabodv, being so firm in this belief, did not go to sleep at all that night, and after mature deliberation decided to do as above stated — attack, and thus give the alarm to those in our rear, so that they could turn out and make some resistance to the overwhelming force, and not be captured or attacked in their quarters. This move seemed to be the only way to convince General Prentiss that there was an army between us and Corinth

..." General Prentiss commanded our Division and Colonel Peabody our Brigade — Sixth Division, First Brigade.

..."Our Regiment and Division were badly handled from the start. Colonel Peabody was killed when our first line was broken, and we were driven back through our camp.’

(Colonel Paebody) ..."entitled to, as it is beyond the question of a doubt that the action betook that morning in opening fight and giving the alarm to the troops in the rear in time to prepare for the attack, was what enabled our army to make the resistance it did, and hold out until Buell and Nelson came to the relief.

"All this he did on his own responsibility General Grant was still at Headquarters at Savannah, and General Prentiss could not be convinced or made to believe as Peabody did, nor could he be persuaded to make any preparations for an attack.'


Lieutenant James M. Newhard
An Illustrated History of the Missouri Engineer and the 25th Infantry Regiments
Pages 124-125
 
Ole Miss, I am Starke Miller here in Oxford. I should already know you, or I would like to know you. Please go contact me on Miller Civil War Tours on Facebook. Thanks!
 
Yes sir I enjoyed the Shiloh tour with the Lions club last year as you did a great job
Regards
David
 
This article is rather risque in that this veteran of Shiloh actually chastises General Grant for being surprised and unprepared for battle. I have not seen many veterans who actually spoke out publicly about Grant being unprepared but then realized this paper was published after his death.
Regards
David

THE “IFS AND BUTS ’’ OF SHILOH. BY ALFRED T. ANDREAs, late First Lieutenant and Quartermaster Twelfth Illinois Infantry U. S. V. 1891

"...to that other great general, he whom we so much reverence that when his name is mentioned we almost instinctively bow the head, – GRANT, - born with us, raised with us, entering the war with us, he graduated in our Western army, won his stars under our banners, and only left us to take the greatest command that ever fell to the lot of man. When there was no more war, he received civil distinction as great as ever fell to mortal man. But he made the great mistake of his military life at Shiloh. He had no idea there was going to be a battle, and he was not prepared for a battle. I have often wondered what could have been his thoughts when, on that fatal afternoon, his magnificent army came retreating back to Pittsburg Landing, shattered, decimated, and demoralized. He could almost hear the victorious Rebel yell. The air was filled with the missiles of death. Chaos reigned All was anxiety; all was uncertainty, No tidings from Wallace. Methinks his thought must have been, “Would to God that night, or Buell, would come !”Grant was the general in command at Shiloh; but he did not give an order that moved a division, a brigade, or a regiment that day.This battle was fought by the Army of the Tennessee, composed of the hardy, intelligent, determined sons of the great West, who, when their country was in peril dropped the avocations of peace, leaving behind all that was near and dear to them, - the pleasures of home, the comforts that plenty brings, the companionship of their families and dear ones, – and volunteered to become sol diers, with all the privations, hardships, and dangers that step implies. That army has a record such as the world has never seen. Fighting the victorious battle of Wilson's Creek in Missouri at the very beginning of the war, it fought at its very close the battle of Bentonville in North Carolina, with more than a hundred between, and every one a victory. After the many battles, from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, from the Ohio to the Gulf, when the smoke of the conflict cleared away, the battlefield was theirs; they buried, not only their own dead, but also those of the enemy."

MILITARY ESSAYS AND RECOLLECTIONS
PAPERS READ BEFORE THE COMMANDERY OF THE STATE of ILLINOIS, MILITARY ORDER OF THE LOYAL LEGION
OF THE UNITED STATES
VOL. I.

Pages 123-124
 
I have always enjoyed reading the thoughts and views of the enlisted men especially those that were recorded soon after battle. In this paper presented by Lucien Crooker, with the 55th Illinios, he quotes from the letter of a fellow soldier soon after the Battle of Shiloh.
Regards
David

EPISODES AND CHARACTERS IN AN ILLINOIS REGIMENT.
By LUCIEN B. CROOKER.
[Read November 10, 1887.)

'There lives out in Winnebago County a prosperous farmer who is in all respects a leading and worthy citizen. In army times he was called “Bob Oliver,” and became a captain; but he fought at Shiloh as a corporal. He was as fine a type of the citizen-soldier as the exigencies of national tribulation ever brought to the front. He claims no literary skill, and would blush like a schoolgirl if he were asked to write anything to be read in public. But he did write in a private letter what follows, and expressed himself so well that the letter is, in its way, a gem. He had been ordered to the rear with a wounded man, but soon turned his charge over to a sergeant with a broken arm, because the latter was too disabled to use his gun; while he returned to the line. What follows is in his own language.

“I heard some one call out, ‘For God's sake, Robert, don't leave me!' I looked back and saw James D. Goodwin of my company. He had everything off but his pants and shirt, and was as red as if he had been dipped in a barrel of blood. I said, ‘Never ! Put your arm around my neck, and I will do the best I can for you.' The Rebels were very close all around us, but I felt strong enough to pull up all the young saplings that grew on the battlefield. While I was taking him back, he was hit once or twice. When I got to a surgeon and we cut the shirt off Goodwin, to my horror I found seven bullet-holes in that boy not yet seventeen years old. I never could tell this experience without something coming up in my throat to cut my speech off. From the minute I took hold of him until I gotto the river he never murmured nor broke down. Whenever he was hit, he gave a sudden start and then braced up again;I never saw such nerve. He died on May 8, the noblest boy I ever saw.”

'It would seem as though the existence of the Republicmust be eternal, when it can reach out over the prairiesand gather from the farms soldiers like these."


Military essays and recollections;
papers read before the Commandery of the State of Illinois, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Volume 1

Page 42-43
 
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I have been studying the Civil War since the early 60's, 1960's, and seldom find myself shocked at what occurs in battle. Yet the story below is a new one for me considering how hectic and dangerous combat is and then these men take the action mentioned.
Regards
David

12th Illinois Infantry Monument Dedication

...About eight o'clock Sunday morning, April 6th, 1862, this regiment, in command of Lieutenant Colonel A. L. Chetlain, was ordered with the 9th Illinois and Willard's battery, south on the Hamburg and Savannah road, the intention being to get in touch with Stuart's brigade, which was holding the extreme left of the field. At this time the uniform of the regiment consisted of a grey jacket and trousers. Before reaching the crossing of the main Corinth road, the regiment was halted and the new blue uniform taken from wagons in waiting and donned by the regiment, the boys shedding their suits of grey and piling them in a long row beside the road.

Illinois at Shiloh
Illinois at Shiloh; Report of the Shiloh Battlefield Commission and Ceremonies at the Dedication of the Monuments

Page 122
 
From Beauregard's report:
"Like an Alpine avalanche our troops moved forward, despite the determined resistance of the enemy, until after 6 p.m., when we were in possession of all his encampments between Owl and Lick Creeks but one; nearly all of his field artillery; about 30 flags, colors, and standards; over 3,000 prisoners, including a division commander (General Prentiss), and several brigade commanders; thousands of small-arms..."

Does anyone know how much of this artillery the Confederates managed to bring off the field? How many thousands of small arms were captured?
 
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
Compassion is everywhere, even in the midst of war. Captain Hickenlooper is one example of many. May he rest in eternal peace.
 
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