About 3 o’clock our cartridges began to run low, and we borrowed each of the other until all was gone; we were holding the enemy, but now our guns were silent. What a helpless man a soldier is in a battle with no ammunition. We marched to the rear left in front in search of cartridges, and none too soon either, for a troop of the enemy’s cavalry were seen on our right, trying to get in our rear and take us prisoners. We had not gone far when we met a line of fresh troops, of whom we begged cartridges, but the caliber was not the right size for our Enfield rifles and we could not use them, and we started on again hunting for cartridges, the enemy pressing us so hard that the Captain of the rear company went rushing up to the Colonel, exclaiming breathlessly:
“My God, Colonel, they are not fifty yards from my company, and we haven’t a shot to defend ourselves.”
“Keep cool,” said the Colonel, “and don’t say anything, the enemy don’t know we are out of ammunition, and we will come out all right yet.”
We had not gone far when we met a wagon loaded with cartridges. Caliber 58. Did you ever see a hungry lot of men wade into a bang-up dinner?
Will was the first to mount the wagon and rip open one of the boxes in quick order, the men scrambling up into the wagon, and crying out: “Give me some, give me more!” The cartridge boxes and pockets were filled in short order. We then took our position on the right of our brigade, supporting a battery.
The enemy soon opened on us with a heavy artillery fire, and either having the best guns or gunners silenced our cannon. The horses were killed, men wounded and killed, but the infantry held the line; we felt strong and courageous now, with plenty of cartridges. The men began to realize that this line must be held though every man fall.
The fight in the peach orchard at Shiloh
There was one place on the battle line of Sunday which was occupied by the gallant troops under Gen. W. H. L. Wallace, and who held the enemy at bay for a long time, the Confederates charging this place several times and being repulsed each time. “Its a regular hornet’s nest,” said one of the Confederate officers, and the spot as located by the United States Commissioners of the Shiloh National Park, bears the name, “Hornet’s Nest,” at the present time. It was at this point that the brave and beloved Gen. W. H. L. Wallace received his mortal wound. To the east of the “Hornet’s Nest,” a short distance, is the place where Commanding General of the Confederate army, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, was killed. I believe that Gen. Johnston was the greatest General of the Confederate army, and many others agree with me.
A little to the rear of Gen. Wallace’s troops was a small pond of water. The wounded soldiers crawled to this pond to slake their thirst and bathe their wounds, and so many washed their wounds in this pond that the water looked like a pool of blood, and it was called the “Bloody Pond.”