Beauregard and Johnson had 60,000 men and they had pounced upon a force of 35,000, many of whom had never been in such a fight. There were not more than 7,000 in the ranks of the Union forces at the closing charge on the evening of the first day’s fight at Shiloh.
CHAPTER VI.
Between sundown and dark our division, under Wallace, slipped in between the lines of the rebel and union forces, while our gunboats constantly threw shells over into the rebel ranks. All during the night, under this same protection, Nelson’s forces were being brought across the river, and General Buell’s army was coming up the river from Savannah, as reinforcements. These two forces numbered 35,000.
The union force outnumbered that of the confederates then by 17,000.
That night the rebels drew their lines back about one and a half miles. Our division laid down in line of battle and remained in that position all night, with the rain pouring down all the time. The groans of the dying and wounded were terrible to hear, yet many of us slept soundly until we were awakened to fall in line.
At 4 o’clock on the morning of the 7th, drenched in rain and very hungry, Wallace’s division plunged into the fight on the right of the army of the Tennessee and opened the battle of the second day’s fight.
We moved out one mile and formed our line of battle. Our brigade supported the Ninth Indiana battery. We were charged by a regiment of rebel cavalry. They were repulsed in a short time and went back faster than they came.
Companies A and B were placed on the skirmish line with Birds’ sharpshooters. We charged on two big twelve-pound batteries which were raining shot and shell into our lines, causing great destruction. We got within forty yards of their guns and silenced them for a few minutes, but they then double shotted with canister and drove us back. We soon met our main column coming up into the charge.