Sherman’s pen was quite as descriptive as his tongue, as the following letters to me will attest. One is on a subject on which he was very sore—the oft repeated story that on the first day of the battle of Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, our army was surprised and defeated.
“No. 75 West 71st St., New York, Jan. 1., 1890.
“Dear Marshall:—
“I thank you for sending me the printed paper containing the observations and experiences of our friend Cockerill about the battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing, April 6 or 7, 1862. Having leisure this New Year’s day, I have read every word of it, and from his standpoint as a boy, four miles from the war, where the hard fighting was done, his account was literally true. His father (a noble gentleman) and I were fighting for time because our enemy for the moment outnumbered us, and we had good reason to expect momentarily Lew Wallace’s division, only six miles off, and Buell’s whole army, only twenty miles away. By contesting every foot of ground, the enemy was checked till night. Our reinforcements came on the 7th. We swept our front and pursued a retreating enemy ten miles, and afterward followed up to Corinth, Memphis, Vicksburg, etc., etc., to the end. That bloody battle was fought April 6 and 7, 1862. After we had actually driven our assailants back to Corinth, twenty-six miles, we received the St. Louis, Cincinnati and Louisville papers, that we were ‘surprised,’ bayonetted in our beds (blankets on the ground) and disgracefully routed.
“These reports we heard at the river bank, and from steamboats under high pressure to get well away. And such is history.
“In the van of every battle is a train of fugitives. We had at the time 32,000 men, of which, say five or six thousand were at the steamboat landing, but what of the others? A braver, finer set of men never existed on earth. The reporters dwelt on the fugitives, because they were of them, but who is to stand up for the brave men at the front?
“We had no reporters with us. Like sensible men they preferred a steamboat bound for Paducah and Cincinnati, where they could describe the battle better than we, who were without pen and ink.
“This to me, is straw already threshed, for we had fought this battle on paper several times—a much more agreeable task than to fight with bullets.
“When in England some years ago, I was gratified to listen to old veterans fighting Waterloo and Sebastopol over again. So, I infer, our children will continue the fight of Shiloh long after we are dead and gone.
“Wishing you a Happy New Year, I am,