From Fort Henry to Corinth

by M. F. Force

Colonel Thompson, aide-de-camp to Beauregard, says in his report: "While I was engaged in rallying our disorganized troops to the left and rear of the church, you seized the banners of two different regiments and led them forward to the assault in face of the fire of the enemy; but from the feebleness of the response I became convinced that our troops were too much exhausted to make a vigorous resistance. I rode up to you and advised that you should expose yourself no further, but should dispose your troops so as to retire from Shiloh Church in good order." Colonel Whittlesey, in his report, states: "There being signs of a retreat farther to the south, Lieutenant Thurber was directed to sweep the ground in front, which he did with his two howitzers and three smooth-bores in fine style. Two prisoners captured near there, one of them an officer of the Creole Guard, state that General Beauregard was endeavoring to form a line for a final and desperate charge on our right when Lieutenant Thurber opened upon him, and the result was a disorderly retreat."

The battle was over. General Beauregard posted a battery and a brigade on the rising ground south of Oak Creek, commanding the ground about Shiloh Church, and withdrew his worn troops behind them. General Beauregard says this was at two o'clock. Cheatham fixes the hour when he retired at half-past two. The National commanders fix the close of the contest at about three o'clock. At Woods', about two miles beyond, a rear-guard took position again. At Mickey's, where Breckenridge had already arrived, he was detailed with his command as rear-guard, and the rest of the army passed on to Monterey.

There was no pursuit of the retreating army. All advance by the National troops ceased about four o'clock. McCook went into bivouac near the camp of Peabody's brigade, Prentiss' division. Wood's division, arriving too late to take part in the battle, pushed to the front and engaged his skirmishers with the light troops covering the retreat. Mendenhall's battery, far off toward Crittenden's left, catching some glimpses of the retiring column through openings in the forest, sent some parting rounds. Wood and Crittenden went into bivouac in front of Prentiss' camp. General Buell pushed Nelson forward on the Hamburg road, near to the crossing of Lick Creek, and the division bivouacked near Stuart's camp. The divisions, or what was present of them, of McClernand, Sherman, Hurlbut, and W.H.L. Wallace, returned to their camps. Lewis Wallace advanced his division across Oak Creek to the large field. Company A, of the Twentieth Ohio, obtaining permission to proceed farther, advanced to the Confederate hospital and was deploying to drive off a detachment of cavalry that was burning a commissary train, when it was recalled to rejoin the division, then returning across Oak Creek, to bivouac in front of the camp of McDowell's brigade.

McClernand and Sherman formed part of the line of battle. Prentiss' division was gone. The other two divisions, what was left of them, acted in reserve. Hurlbut formed his division in the morning complete, with the exception of the Forty-sixth Illinois, which served for the day with McClernand. It was a skeleton division. The Third Iowa was 140 men under the command of a lieutenant. In the forenoon, General Grant sent Hurlbut out to act as reserve to McClernand. The Twenty-eighth Illinois took place for a while on McClernand's left, and Veatch with his three regiments took place on McCook's left, when he diverged from Crittenden. Colonel Tuttle, senior officer in the Second Division, by the death of W.H.L. Wallace and the wounding of McArthur, gathered the remaining regiments of his division, except the Fourteenth Missouri and the Eighty-first Ohio, added to them Colonel Crocker and three regiments of McClernand's First Brigade, and marched in reserve to Crittenden. He sent the Second Iowa to Nelson, when Nelson's line was broken by the gallant but disastrous charge of Hazen; the Eighth and Eighteenth Illinois moved out to the left of Crittenden when he diverged from Nelson, and the Seventh Iowa, moved into the front line later in the day.

The number of Johnston's army has already been given as 40,000 men. Badeau says the effective force present in the National camps Sunday morning was 33,000 men. General Sherman makes the number 32,000. William Preston Johnston, in the Life of his father, makes the number of the National troops, the "grand total in Sunday's battle," 41,543. These various statements arise from the different ways of making and reading returns. Forty thousand does not represent the total force which A.S. Johnston led to Shiloh. Forty thousand "present for duty" is exclusive not only of the brigade of detailed teamsters and cooks that General Johnston complained of, but of all regular and permanent details. It appears from some reports which give numbers, that it was also exclusive of temporary details made for the occasion of the battle—hospital men, train guards, ammunition guards, sappers and miners, infantry detailed to act with batteries, etc. It appears from some of the reports, which state numbers, that the "enlisted men" "present for duty," in the "Field Returns of the Confederate Forces that marched from Corinth to the Tennessee River," comprised only non-commissioned officers and privates, and was therefore exclusive of musicians, buglers, artificers, etc., though enlisted as such. The 40,000, therefore, is the number of the combatants engaged in the battle. The field return is susceptible of further explanations, the character of which does not appear. The field return, for example, gives the "present for duty," in the artillery in Polk's corps, as 20 officers and 331 enlisted men—351 in all; while the official report of the chief of artillery of the corps, of casualties in the battle, giving each battery separately, states the number actually engaged in the battle as 21 officers, 56 non-commissioned officers, and 369 privates, making a total of 446. It is clear, therefore, that the 40,000 is intended as the number of officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates actually engaged in the battle, and a comparison of the reports of General Polk's chief of artillery with the returns suggests that in some way it may not be the full number of combatants engaged.

The aggregation of returns making 41,153 present for duty in Grant's army at Pittsburg Landing, Sunday morning, is not a consolidated return, but a collection of footings of regimental returns, the nearest in date attainable to April 6th, for the most part furnished by the War Department to Colonel Johnson, the rest either taken from reports of State adjutant-generals, or else estimated. The statement includes the Fourteenth Wisconsin and the Fifteenth Michigan, neither of which arrived till after the close of Sunday's battle.[3] Deducting the "present for duty" given for these, 1,488, leaves, in round numbers, as in General Johnston's army, 40,000. But "present for duty" in the returns of the National forces, includes musicians, buglers, artificers, etc.; all men present for the duty for which they were enlisted. The army was clothed with music. There were 72 regiments present, including those which arrived Sunday morning. The field music of 720 companies, with the buglers of cavalry and artillery, made about three thousand men. Besides these there were bands so numerous that an order was shortly afterward made, restricting the number of bands to one to each brigade. Where the battle reports give the number taken into action, the difference in the number given and the number of "present for duty," as given by the War Department to Colonel Johnston, suggests that many had gone on to the sick list, or been detailed, between the date of the return and April 6th; or that many men present for duty were left behind in camp. Probably all were true, and thirty-three thousand or thirty-two thousand is the number of officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates actually engaged in Sunday's battle on the National side. The reinforcements of Monday numbered, of Buell's army, about twenty thousand; Lewis Wallace, sixty-five hundred; other regiments, about fourteen hundred.

[3] This is a mistake as to the Fifteenth Michigan, which lost, Sunday, 33 killed, 64 wounded, and 7 missing.

There ought to be no uncertainty in the reports of casualties. Yet, while the general result is clear, precision in detail is now hardly attainable. General Beauregard's report gives his loss as 1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing; making an aggregate of 10,699. Of the reported missing, many were killed or wounded. These numbers are the aggregate of losses reported by brigades. They cannot include casualties at division, corps, or army headquarters, happening either to the generals commanding, or to the officers on their staff, or to enlisted men on duty there. And while batteries were attached to brigades, the cavalry was a wholly independent command, not attached or reporting to brigades or divisions; two regiments were not attached to any corps. Their casualties cannot be included in brigade reports. Colonel Johnston, after much examination, "finds a possible variation of 218 more casualties, principally in missing, that might be added to General Beauregard's report."

The generally accepted official report of the National loss is: in Grant's army, 1,437 killed, 5,679 wounded, and 2,934 missing, making a total of 10,050; in Buell's army, 263 killed, 1,816 wounded, and 88 missing—making a total of 2,167. The two armies aggregated 1,700 killed, 7,495 wounded, and 3,022 captured—making total, 12,217. The War Department, in the printed collection of battle reports, does not give the casualties of the two armies separately, but gives the aggregate, 1,574 killed, 7,795 wounded, and 2,794 missing—making a total of 12,163. The "Medical and Surgical History of the War" makes the loss 1,735 killed, 7,882 wounded, 3,956 missing—making a total of 13,573. The loss of the Army of the Ohio, as given above, is the report of General Buell on April 15th. Six days later, the Medical Director of that army made to General Buell a tabulated statement of killed and wounded in each regiment, brigade, and division engaged, which makes the number 236 killed and 1,728 wounded. All these estimates are based upon the same material—upon the field reports. As the revisers of the reports for publication have had the best opportunity for deliberate examination and for comparison of the reports with muster-rolls, their estimate of casualties is perhaps the most trustworthy.

The loss in artillery on each side was about equal. General Sherman lost seven guns and captured seven. General McClernand lost six guns and captured three. Prentiss lost eight guns. Hurlbut lost two batteries. The Army of the Ohio captured about twenty guns, many of them being recaptured guns, lost on Sunday. One of Breckenridge's brigades threw away their arms, taking in place better arms picked up on the field. There was a great destruction of camp equipage and stores. The quartermaster of the Third Iowa, in Hurlbut's division, packed everything in wagons, safely carried stores and baggage to the landing, and let down the tents to save them from damage by shot. Before the wagons of Prentiss' division went to the rear, while the division was still engaged at the front, Colonel Miller's servant gathered everything in the Colonel's tent, packed it in one of the wagons, carried it safely off, and kept all in good order till Miller returned from captivity. But such thoughtfulness was the exception, and the returning troops found much missing and more destroyed.