The Crescent Regiment at Shiloh

[Championhilz]

While doing some research today, I found the following post-war letter, written by John Bull Smith Dimitry, a private in Company C, Louisiana Crescent Regiment, to his friend William Bullitt, a lieutenant in the same company. In the letter, which is not dated, Dimitry gives a stirring account of Bullitt's exploits during the Battle of Shiloh:

THE MAIL AND EXPRESS
NEW YORK

My Dear Bullitt:
I was a member, with you - you being 2d lieutenant - of Co. C, Crescent Regiment, Louisiana Vols, C.S.A. I remember the circumstance of your carrying the regimental flag on Monday April 7th, the second day of the battle of Shiloh.

At about 9 A.M., the Crescents were resting on an open hill, supporting the Washington Artillery (5th Co.). Without any warning, a volley, poured by the Federals from the hill opposite us, threw the Battery into confusion. That fire either killed or disabled the horses belonging to two of the guns, this left them defenseless.

The battery fearing to lose their guns, left these two on the ground, and made a wild rush to the rear. Instead of passing, as they should have done, to our right, they swept - carriages, caissons, shouting men, frightened horses, and all - clear through Co's A, B, & C. Of course, this threw the regiment - struck through its right flank - into confusion. The Federals, seeing our trouble, sent another rattling fire straight against our colors. It did damage, among many others, Schilling, Color-Sergeant, was wounded badly. As he reeled, the flag dropped from his hands. It was then that your, seeing the danger to the colors, rushed forward to take them.

Here was one of those supreme moments of a regiment when its flag - slipping from brave hands no longer able to keep it - is caught up by other brave hands in the face of an enemy pouring, continuously, balls and shells upon its defenders. Men call the seizing of a standard, when it has had mischance, and holding it high up for the Regt. to see and to follow, the act of a hero. Knowing the facts I have given here, my dear Bullitt, I am free to call you that hero, on Apl. 7, 1862.

Fraternally Yours

I found this letter in the Mayes-Dimitry-Stuart Family Papers, Z/0069.000/S, Box 1, Folder 1, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. I did a little looking online, and found the following postwar photograph of John Bull Smith Dimitry on Findagrave:

 

[Championhilz]

I did a little more research, and found this image of William Bullitt from his obituary in the Times-Picayune, May 13, 1894:

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

The regimental monument at Shiloh NMP.

http://transmississippian.blogspot.com/2012/06/trans-mississippi-monuments-at-shiloh.html


From Bergeron, La. Confed. Units, 131-32:

"This state militia regiment transferred to Confederate service in New Orleans on March 6, 1862, for ninety days with 945 men. The regiment went immediately to Corinth, Mississippi, to reinforce General Pierre G.T. Beauregard's army. On April 6, the regiment played an important role in the capture of two Federal divisions at the Hornet's Nest during the Battle of Shiloh. The next day, the men supported the 5th Company, Washington Artillery, and prevented the enemy from capturing three of the battery's guns. In the battle, 23 of the regiment's men were killed, 84 were wounded, and 20 were missing. Retreating with the army to Corinth, the regiment was disbanded on June 3 by General Braxton Bragg at the expiration of its enlistment. Most of the men went into the 18th Louisiana Regiment. On September 17, the War Department reorganized the regiment and ordered it to report to General Richard Taylor in south Louisiana. The reorganization occurred at New Iberia on October 16, when Colonel McPheeters reclained the men serving with the 18th Louisiana. On October 27, the regiment fought in the Battle of Labadieville and retreated with the army to the lower Bayou Teche. After spending several weeks at Bisland, the men moved to Avery Island on December 19. The regiment went to Butte a la Rose on January 11, 1863. On February 16, Companies F, G, and H, while on picket on Grand River, fired on and drove off the enemy steamer Grey Cloud. The regiment returned to Bisland on April 7 and fought in the battle there on April 12 and 13. Retreating with Taylor's army through Opelousas and Alexandria to Natchitoches, the regiment returned to south Louisiana in June. The men garrisoned Brashear City in June and July while the army conducted operations on Bayou Lafourche. During the next three months, the regiment marched with General Alfred MOUTON's brigade back and forth across south Louisiana. On November 3, the 11thand 12th [Confederate Guards Response] Louisiana infantry battalions were added to the regiment at Simmesport to form the Consolidated Crescent Regiment."
http://www.acadiansingray.com/Crescent (24th) Regt. Inf.htm