All night it rained heavily and with scarcely a moment's intermission. Storm, darkness and gloom—a fitting termination of those two dreadful days.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
A survey of the field—Plundering the dead—Civilians and relic-seekers—Congratulatory orders—Camp on a field of graves.
Drenched by the rain and without covering, the troops of Buell had lain all night on the advance portions of the field in line of battle. In the morning many of them began to discharge their pieces to get the wet loads out of them. These reports caused great consternation among the stragglers in their rear, who fled toward the river firing their pieces as if to repeat the alarm. For some time we did not heed these noises; but soon hosts of stragglers, most of them armed, began to pour through our camp, reporting that the enemy was renewing the attack. Our teamsters began to hitch up their mules; our sutler gathered up his books and commenced a retreat toward the landing. In a moment our regiment was in line. Captain Smith was in command. We joined the 32d Illinois on our left and stretched our line across the road which ran between their camp and ours, thus intercepting the terror-stricken herd that poured down it, and compelling them to take positions in our ranks. We stacked arms and broke ranks as soon as the panic had subsided.
During the afternoon, I yielded to curiosity, and with some comrades took a stroll over the field. From our extreme front camps to the river, and for three or four miles to right and left, the dead were everywhere to be found. Upon the crests of certain hills, in camps and in open fields they lay more thickly than elsewhere. One could discern with unmistakable certainty on what parts of the field the battle had raged with greatest fury. Nowhere did the enemy's dead lay so thickly as on the open field behind which the First Brigade of the Fourth Division had fought on Sunday, and nowhere did our own dead lay so thickly as at certain points to the right and left of it.
Soldiers were scattered everywhere over the field, some prompted by curiosity, some by a desire to revisit some particular spot where his regiment had fought and suffered, where some dear comrade had fallen, or where he had witnessed while it was taking place, some particular feature of the battle, and some by a desire to plunder the dead.
For ourselves, we paid particular attention to the position our regiment had held for five hours on Sunday. "Here," said we, "we repulsed the charge on the field and piled up the enemy's dead. Here Mann's Battery engaged the enemy; here we supported the steel guns and here the 2d Michigan. And what a storm was here! And here was our first, and here our second position in retreat; and here we made our last stand, and then——".