In dead silence the troops took their new position, and lay down on their arms in line of battle. All night long the remainder of Buell’s men were marching up from Savannah to a point opposite Pittsburg Landing, whence they were brought over in transports. An hour after dark Wallace came in with his division. There had been delay in getting the right road, which made him late on the field. But once there he fell to work with energy. He ascertained the position of certain rebel batteries which lay in front of him on the right, and threatened to bar his advance in the morning, and selected positions for a couple of his batteries from which they could silence the enemy. In placing his guns and arranging his brigades for support, he was occupied till one o’clock in the morning. His wearied men had lain down to snatch a few hours of sleep, with the shadows of death all around them.
At nine o’clock all was hushed near the landing. Men still panting from the hot contest of the day, threw themselves on the earth to sleep or die as they chanced to be unhurt or wounded unto death. The bright stars looked down upon the ranks of sleeping, dying and dead men, with sweet Sabbath-like calm, and never did the stars of heaven brood over a spectacle more appalling. The sound of marching troops from the far distance alone broke the solemn stillness, save when the moans of the wounded, and the agonizing cries for water thrilled the night with sounds of anguish. Now a flash shed a flood of sheet-lightning over the river, turning its waters to lurid fire, and the roar of heavy naval guns reverberated on the bluffs, breaking up the sublime silence of the night. Again and again the guns boomed great volumes of sound. By the flashes, the gunboats could be seen receding back into the fiery blue of the waters with each graceful recoil produced by the discharge. A thin veil of smoke settled around them, floating drowsily between their black hulls and the beautiful stars. Far away in the distant woods came the muffled explosion of shells thus let loose on the tranquil air.
Thus the night wore on. The soldiers, far too weary for the boom of cannon to awake them, slept quietly almost as the dead were sleeping. The wounded answered back the dismal sound with more dismal groans. At midnight a thunder storm broke over the battle field, and the artillery of heaven swept its fires through the sky, while the guns from the river boomed a sullen answer. Torrents of rain fell, drenching the sleepers, but falling cool as balm on the parched lips of the wounded, assuaging their burning thirst and moistening their wounds.
The vigilant officers knew that half a mile off lay a victorious army, commanded by splendid Generals, rendered ardent by a half-won conquest which might be a victory on the morrow. For them there was little rest. When the day broke it found these men watching. When the brain is active men do not sleep, and the General who has divisions to command and protect must earn success by vigilance.
THE BATTLE ON MONDAY.
The line of battle agreed upon for the Union forces on Monday was this:—Right wing, Major-General Lew. Wallace; left wing, Brigadier-General Nelson. Between these, beginning at the left, Brigadier-Generals T. Crittenden, A. McD. McCook, Hurlbut, McClernand and W. T. Sherman. In the divisions of the three latter were to be included also the remains of Prentiss’ and W. H. L. Wallace’s commands—shattered and left without commanders, through the capture of one, and the mortal wound of the other.
Buell’s three divisions were not full when the battle opened on Monday morning, but the lacking regiments were gradually brought into the rear. The different divisions were composed of the following forces:
Brigadier-General Nelson’s Division.—First Brigade—Col. Ammon, 24th Ohio, commanding; 36th Indiana, Col. Gross; 6th Ohio, Lieut.-Col. Anderson; 24th Ohio, Lieut.-Col. Fred. C. Jones. Second Brigade—Saunders D. Bruce, 20th Kentucky, commanding; 1st Kentucky, Col. Enyard; 2d Kentucky, Col. Sedgwick; 20th Kentucky, Lieut.-Col. ——, commanding. Third Brigade—Col. Hazen, 41st Ohio, commanding; 41st Ohio, 6th Kentucky and 9th Indiana.
Brigadier-General T. Crittenden’s Division.—First Brigade—Gen. Boyle; 19th Ohio, Col. Beatty; 59th Ohio, Col. Pfyffe; 13th Kentucky, Col. Hobson; 9th Kentucky, Col. Grider. Second Brigade—Col. Wm. S. Smith, 13th Ohio, commanding; 13th Ohio, Lieut.-Col. Hawkins; 26th Kentucky, Lieut.-Col. Maxwell; 11th Kentucky, Col. P. P. Hawkins; with Mendenhall’s regular and Bartlett’s Ohio batteries.
Brigadier-General McCook’s Division.—First Brigade—Brig.-Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau; 1st Ohio, Col. Ed. A. Parrott; 6th Indiana, Col. Crittenden; 3d Kentucky (Louisville Legion); battalions 15th, 16th and 19th regulars. Second Brigade—Brig.-Gen. Johnston; 32d Indiana, Col. Willich; 39th Indiana, Col. Harrison; 49th Ohio, Col. Gibson. Third Brigade—Colonel Kirk, 34th Illinois, commanding; 34th Illinois, Lieut.-Col. Badsworth; 29th Indiana, Lieut.-Col. Drum; 30th Indiana, Col. Bass; 77th Pennsylvania, Col. Stambaugh.