For some months previous to the battle of Shiloh General Halleck had been commanding the Department of the West, with his headquarters at St. Louis, from which place he was directing the movements of the armies. Immediately after this battle he came to Pittsburg Landing, arriving on April 11, and, assuming personal command, he began the reorganization and reinforcement of the army in the vicinity, for a march on Corinth, where it was understood the Confederates were concentrating. This step on his part had the effect of practically relieving General Grant from command.
The news of the battle and heavy losses suffered by the Union forces awakened throughout the country great interest and sympathy, and from all the leading cities of the West located on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers steamers were chartered and dispatched to the battlefield, loaded with hospital supplies, volunteer surgeons, and friends of the soldiers. A boat was sent from Evansville, and among the passengers was my brother George, bringing letters from home and delicacies for the wounded soldiers of the Twenty-fifth and our mess. In a letter of the 11th, four days after the battle, I wrote to my wife:—
"I can assure you I was glad to see the Bowen with a load of our kind friends after the terrible experience of the last week, and to know that the great patriotic heart of the Nation was going out in sympathy and in acts of mercy to our suffering wounded, who have been so sadly, cruelly neglected by our army general medical officers. I thank you and Eliza and Eleanor [my sisters] and our good friends at home for their presents. In our hard-fought battle of last Sunday the enemy drove us back clear behind our camp and rascally carried off or devoured all our eatables, and your delicacies came just in time to be fully appreciated.
"I haven't seen Captain Smith since he was wounded. I suppose he has gone down the river in the boats. You remember I wrote you we were on a court-martial together; I was finally excused from it to take command of our regiment. I saw Colonel Harlan [afterwards Justice of the United States Supreme Court; married Miss Shanklin, of Evansville] to-day. He was in good health. His regiment is lying near us, in the woods without tents. I meet a large number of acquaintances in the Indiana regiments of Buell's army.
"I send by George a copy of my official report of the Twenty-fifth. Tell father I cannot have it published yet, but I thought he and our home folks would want to read it, but don't circulate it too freely. As soon as I can get the necessary consent, I will have both Colonel Veatch's brigade and my regimental reports sent home for publication. I am anxious that our regiment should have a fair share of the honor, as it had of the fighting.
"Say to father and our friends that our regiment fought bravely and did itself and the State credit. I had the entire responsibility of the command. I believe I did my duty well; all assure me of it in the highest terms. I know I saved the regiment from disgrace and annihilation by a little daring exposure and vigorous encouragement of our men. This I write freely, but privately, to you and father. It is a great consolation to me as a citizen to know I have done my duty, but it is a further gratification to know that my friends at home give me credit for it."
On the 13th I write about the return of the steamer Bowen to Evansville:—
"I was much out of humor because they let the boat be filled up with slightly wounded of other regiments, and left thirty or forty of our badly wounded Twenty-fifth in the hospitals at Savannah, to linger and suffer from neglect and bad treatment, and run the chance of getting home on the charity of other parts of the State. But I suppose the committee in charge did what they thought was for the best; still, we are naturally sensitive and jealous for the comfort of our own men."
In my letter of the 13th I speak of the difficulty of getting my letters. Officers and men of the regiment were constantly going and coming from Evansville on furlough or sick-leave, and they were often availed of to carry mail matter, as the mail was not regular, but I note one instance in which my letters by private hand did not reach me for thirty days. I tell my wife:—
"When you can't have opportunities of sending letters to me by private means, send them by mail; they will get here afterwhile, and they are never old. Your letter of Sunday was seven days in coming. I have just received your three letters sent by Schoenfield. They were a little behind time, being dated March 14! but they were still very welcome. I received by him the 'Evangelist' and 'Independent.' I always like to get them, especially the 'Evangelist,' as it gives a little variety to my religious reading.