USA > Iowa > A history of the Sixth Iowa infantry > Part 7
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The battle fought by a portion of Sherman's division during the afternoon, on the extreme right flank of the army, was one of the most stubbornly contested engage- ments of that bloody field. A stand was maintained for four long hours against the furious assaults of the best troops in the Confederate army, led by General Hardee in person.
General Patrick R. Cleburne, commanding a brigade composed of the 6th Mississippi, 15th Arkansas, 2nd, 5th, 23rd, and 24th Tennessee regiments, and two batteries of artillery, opened the battle in the morning in front of the Union right flank at Owl Creek and was engaged con- stantly throughout the day on that part of the field.
The 15th Arkansas, 23rd, 24th, and 35th Tennessee regiments, being the four regiments referred to by Gen- eral Hardee, which were hurled against the Union flank, were led by General Cleburne. Colonel Robert P. Tra- bue's Kentucky brigade, composed of the 4th Alabama battalion, a Tennessee battalion, the 31st Alabama, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Kentucky regiments, Morgan's cavalry, and two Kentucky batteries, participated in the engage- ment. In his full and comprehensive report of the battle the Colonel refers to this contest as follows:
I had only three regiments in line -- the Fourth, Sixth, and
-
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Fifth Kentucky 1 fought him for an hour and a quarter, killing 400 or 500 of the Forty-sixth Ohio Infantry alone, as well as many of another Ohio regiment, a Missouri regiment, and some Iowa troops. It would be impossible to praise too highly the steadiness and valor of my troops in this engagement.
These two commands sustained the greatest loss in killed and wounded of any of the Confederate brigades engaged in the battle.
Colonel Benjamin J. Hill, commanding the 5th Ten- nessee of Cleburne's brigade, graphically described the operations against the Union right, in the following words :
I was then directed, as senior colonel, to take command of all the troops on my left by one of General Beauregard's staff, which I did, and formed them in line of battle, to keep back their right wing. Thus, with two Louisiana regiments on the left of your [Cleburne's] brigade, the Texas Rangers on the extreme left, on Owl Creek, a battery in our rear, the Louisiana cavalry as pickets, and the Fifteenth Arkansas as skirmish- ers, we advanced at once, driving the extreme right of the enemy for at least a mile before us. They halted at their third en- campment and gave us a stubborn fight As far as my observation went all the Tennessee troops fought well. So it was with the Arkansas troops, the Mississippi, the Kentucky, and the Alabama troops on the left.
Thus do the Confederates tell the story of the battle on the right flank of the Union army, on Sunday.
At 3 p. m., General Grant inspected the lines on the ex- treme right and consulted with General McClernand and General Sherman. They hoped to maintain the position, but the prolonged contest of more than four hours, with a large force of infantry and cavalry swiftly advancing
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on the right flank and rear of the position, pouring in a destructive cross-fire - together with the fresh legions advancing, with loud yells in front, made the position held by McDowell's brigade very critical, and those com- manders then gave the orders to abandon the line.
General John A. McClernand, in his report of the bat- tle, referred to the engagement as follows: "In thus awarding honor to the meritorious it is but just to rec- onize the good conduct of the portion of General Sher- man's division participating in this protracted and des- perate conflict". General Sherman said: "We held this position for four long hours, sometimes gaining and at other times losing ground".
A small creek lay in the rear and across the line of re- treat, having its source in the center of the battlefield, running thence in a northerly direction and emptying in- to Snake Creek just above the military bridge on the wagon road leading from the Pittsburg Landing to the Crump's Landing. The valley and slopes of this creek were thickly covered with a heavy growth of large trees and a perfect wilderness of brush and vines, in the pass- age of which all formation was destroyed, causing the first break and demoralization in the ranks of the regiment, during the day.
As the men emerged from the thickets on the high and open ground beyond the hollow they were rallied around their officers, Captain Saunders and Captain Walden --- the ranking officers remaining -- formed the regiment in line with about 300 men present and took position in the new line then being established by General Sherman for his command. Captain Walden assumed command of the regiment. Captain Minton and Lieutenant Robert Alli- son had also collected 20 men, including Color-Sergeant
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Henry Roberts with the flag, and, for the time, joined Colonel Joseph R. Cockerill with a fragment of his 70th Ohio regiment.
It was at the instance of Colonel J. D. Webster, Chief of Artillery, serving on the Staff of General Grant, that the regiment was moved to the immediate support of the heavy siege guns in the line near the landing, where it was in the fray at the last desperate onset of the army to carry the position. The artillery fire opened from the Union lines by the concentrated field batteries, siege guns, Parrott guns, and the loud explosions of the big guns on the gun boats, was a most terrific cannonade, concussion of which caused the blood to burst from the nose and ears of men who were in the line supporting the guns. The hearing of a number of men in the Sixth Iowa was permanently injured, while supporting that battery.
General Grant's presence on the field and along the line of batteries formed by Colonel Webster was con- spicuous. It was in his report of the battle, dated April 9, 1862, that he complimented Colonel Webster for his services at that time, thus: "At least in one instance he was the means of placing an entire regiment in a po- sition of doing most valuable service". He had refer- ence undoubtedly to the Sixth Iowa and its support of the battery in the line that was held, as Colonel Webster rode at the head of the column and placed the regiment in position in the line.
It was late in the afternoon when the advance troops of General Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio ap- peared on the east bank of the Tennessee River, opposite Pittsburg Landing, and the steamboats lying at the land- ing commenced transferring them across. The three regiments first ferried over arrived on the field in time
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to witness the baffled and beaten lines of the enemy, re- tiring from their last assault. Their march from the boats up the steep bluff and back to the lines about the batteries was through a motley throng of wounded men and stragglers - a scene calculated to test the courage of the stoutest hearts. But never did stalwart soldiers march so resolutely and appear so determined as did the superbly equipped and highly disciplined men in Briga- dier-General Jacob Ammen's brigade, composed of the 36th Indiana, 6th and 24th Ohio regiments, on that event- ful evening; nor did strains of music ever sound so sweet as did the patriotic airs played by the brass bands march - ing at the head of each regiment. They marched directly to the front lines and were there engaged with the enemy in the closing scenes of the day.
General William Nelson, who commanded the advance division of Buell's army, said in his report dated April 10, 1862:
I found cowering under the river bank when I crossed from 7,000 to 10,000 men, frantic with fright and utterly demoral- ized. They were insensible to shame or sarcasm - for I tried both on them - and, indignant at such poltroonery, I asked permission to open fire upon the knaves.
He was a blustering braggart and a military tyrant, and thus did an injustice to thousands of sick and wounded men, who were as brave and gallant soldiers as ever marched to the music of the Union. It is very probable that when General Jefferson C. Davis refused to submit to his cruel tyranny and shot him to death in the hotel at Louisville, Kentucky, he met the fate he deserved.
It may have appeared to some during the severe con- test in front of the batteries that the only hope was
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"Buell or sundown", but the Confederates in their re- ports of the battle disclose the fact that General Beaure- gard had given up the contest for the day and commenced the withdrawal of his army at sundown. The last as- sault made by the Confederates in the evening was led by Brigadier-General James R. Chalmers, commanding a brigade composed of one battery, the 51st and the 52nd Tennessee, the Fifth, Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Miss- issippi regiments, and Brigadier-General J. K. Jackson, commanding a brigade embracing an Alabama battalion, an Arkansas battalion, a battery, the second Texas, the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Alabama in- fantry regiments. The Nineteenth Alabama was led by its Colonel, Joseph Wheeler, the afterwards famous cav- alry commander in the Spanish-American War, and Bri- gadier-General in the U. S. army.
On April 12, 1862, General Chalmers made his report of the battle and describes this engagement as follows:
My brigade, together with that of Brigadier-General Jackson, filed to the right and formed facing the river and endeavored to press forward to the water's edge, but in attempting to mount the last, ridge we were met by a fire from a whole line of bat- teries protected by infantry and assisted by shells from the gun- boats. Our men struggled vainly to ascend the hill, which was very steep, making charge after charge without success, but con- tinued to fight until night closed hostilities on both sides. Dur- ing this engagement Gage's battery was brought up to our as- sistance, but suffered so severely that it was soon compelled to retire.
The artillery kept up a ceaseless fire, the great red flames pouring out from the muzzles of more than a hun- dred cannon into the darkness of the night. The huge
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missiles, bursting and tearing through the timber, were terrifying scenes, and, if possible,' more startling than the roar and clash of battle on the field during the day. It was late in the evening that the regiment was retired a few yards in the rear of the artillery line, where it bivouacked and remained during the night. A large number of the men had lost or thrown away their haver- sacks during the day and were without provisions in their exhausted and hungry condition.
From early morning through all the changing scenes of the day, the actions and conduct of no other one man in the regiment had been so critically observed as that of the young Adjutant, Thomas J. Ennis, who had withstood the gibes and jeers of the men on several occasions, after his appointment to the position of Regimental Adjutant. The battle was the opportunity which he had coveted for vindication, against the inconsiderate reproaches heaped upon him, and to establish himself in the confidence of the regiment. At the most critical periods during the contests of the day he was conspicuous with sword in hand passing from one flank of the regiment to the other, ex- hibiting great personal courage and inspiring the men with firmness to stand in the midst of the death dealing storm of bullets and shells. Youthful in appearance, slender in stature, highly intellectual - in repose, modest and retiring - in the presence of danger, heroic and com- manding - he was the ideal soldier - ever ready at the post of duty. Shiloh was his graduation into the affec- tions of the men and officers of the regiment, by whom he was ever after held in the highest esteem, as a soldier and Christian gentleman.
All through the long weary hours of the night there
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was the steady tramp! tramp ! tramp ! of Buell's brigades arriving and going into position. The drenching rain, vivid lightning, and loud peals of thunder mingled with the regular boom! boom! boom! of the gunboats' big guns sending their hundred pound compliments far over into the lines of the enemy. Altogether, it was a night of exposure, great discomfort, and much anxiety.
VII AFTER THE BATTLE OF SHILOH
With scarcely any convenience or opportunity for sleep during the night, the men of the Sixth Iowa were astir at the first dawn of day, still greatly fatigued from the efforts and labors of the previous day. The exposure in the drenching rain throughout the night had caused many to be disqualified for a renewal of the contest. The se- vere losses sustained by the regiment in killed, wounded, prisoners, and sick had thinned the ranks to less than half of the number who had answered to the roll call on Sunday morning.
There being no brigade organization attempted and not receiving orders to go to the front, where the battle was renewed at daylight by Buell's fresh divisions and General Lew Wallace's division from Crump's Landing, the regiment was placed in the line of reserves near the line of artillery, occupied the evening before. At about 10 o'clock, several small squads were granted permis- sion to go forward as the lines advanced and recover the severely wounded men of the regiment, who had been left on the field where they fell. They mostly fell in with the 24th Indiana Regiment of General Lew Wallace's division on the right of the lines, and were hotly engaged with his troops in driving the enemy from the field held so long by McDowell's brigade on Sunday afternoon. To see such a large number of dead men lying on the field and witness the suffering of the severely and mortally wounded, on the recovery of the ground where the regi-
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ment had fought so long, was a distressing sight and piti. able to behold.
Captain Minton and Lieutenant Robert Allison, with their detachment, remained with the 70th Ohio through- out the day participating in several engagements, and only ceased when the enemy had fled and abandoned the field. They returned with a portion of their men in the evening to the field of Sunday's engagement and as- sisted in sending the wounded men to the hospital boats at the landing.
At 1:30 p. m., the officers and men remaining, under the command of Captain Walden, joined General James A. Garfield's brigade of Buell's army, which had just ar- rived by steamers from Savannah and was marching to the front. In his report dated April 9, 1862, General Garfield said:
A fragment of the Sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry was tem- porarily attached to my brigade, by command of Major-General Grant. I immediately moved my column forward about 3 miles to the front of General Buell's position, which I reached about 3 o'clock p. m. My command was for some time under fire from the batteries of the enemy.
At one o'clock General Beauregard determined to "withdraw from so unequal a conflict", and at 2 p. m. gave the orders to his troops to begin the retrograde movement, which, he said, "was done with uncommon steadiness and the enemy made no attempt to follow". General Buell said: "The enemy made his last decided stand in the woods beyond Sherman's camp The pursuit was continued no farther that day." Captain Walden with his "fragment" of the Sixth Iowa was in at the finale and among the Union troops who were last to be fired upon by the retreating
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AFTER SHILOH
Confederates, more than a mile southwest of the Shiloh Church.
The well drilled and highly disciplined troops of Gener- al Buell's army renewed the battle on Monday morning with great spirit and gallantry. The enemy's troops were for the time reanimated by the excitement of the battle, and fought with unconquerable spirit, but their tired and disordered soldiers - seemingly brave and steadfast as the rocks- were compelled to give up the struggle. The battle of Shiloh was fought at the begin- ning of the campaigns in the second year of the war, and the majority of the troops, on either side, had not been engaged before in a general battle.
General Grant's army was a concentration of the avail- able forces in General Halleck's territory of the Union Western Department, and General Johnston's army com- bined the organized forces east of the Mississippi River in the Confederate Western Department, which gave the engagement the magnitude and character of a decisive battle of the war.
The organization of the Confederate army and the esprit de corps of the troops was superb; the battle or- der and attack was a model of military science and tac- tics; and on the field of battle the leadership was cou- rageous and brilliant.
The Union formation and preparation for defense was almost -if not wholly - without military order or sys- tem. The stubborn resistance made by the troops was an exhibition of heroic courage, patient endurance, and great gallantry - not paralleled during the war.
It is sheer conjecture as to what might have been the result on Monday had not Buell's army arrived on Sun- day night. Certain it is that the troops of both armies
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were thoroughly exhausted on Sunday evening, when the Confederates had made their heroic effort to carry the Union position defending the landing, and failed - drawing off to the captured camps for the night.
The Confederates are no more open to criticism for their failure to annihilate and capture Grant's army on Sunday evening than are the combined Union armies for allowing the Confederates to abandon the field on Mon- day afternoon, after the second day's hard fighting, prac- tically without pursuit.
The Confederate army resumed the fight on Monday greatly depleted in numbers. Hundreds of their best men from each brigade were dead on the battlefield or in the hospitals wounded, and hundreds of others had run away from the fight of the day before - some through coward- ice and some loaded with plunder looted from the Union camps.
General Cleburne's brigade went into the fight on Sun- day morning with about 2700 men in line, and on Mon- day morning he could only rally 800 effective men for duty in the front line of battle. His brigade was prob- ably only an example of what the condition was through- out the whole Confederate army.
On March 30, 1862, the Sixth Iowa had present for duty in camp at Shiloh, 27 officers and 609 enlisted men; of these there were 600 officers and men who actually par- ticipated in the battle. Out of this number, the regiment suffered a loss of 2 officers and 44 men killed, 22 men who died of wounds, 4 officers and 98 men wounded, and 1 officer and 36 men taken prisoner, a total loss of 207.9
9 The official report gives the casualties of the Sixth Iowa as follows: three officers and forty-nine men killed, four officers and ninety men wounded, and one officer and thirty-six men missing, a total loss of one
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AFTER SHILOH
The first reports made of the wounded embraced the names of all - including those only slightly wounded, who at once returned to the ranks for duty. The whole country was shocked at the long lists of killed and wound. ed, which resulted in orders being issued to revise the list and report only the names of those who were serious- ly disabled, and taken to the hospitals -- which was strict- ly complied with in the Sixth Iowa. The fact that 96 were still absent in hospitals on April 30th, indicates the serious character of their wounds.
The following is the list of casualties in the regiment by name:
COMPANY A
Killed: Sergeant Samuel W. Bowers and Private George M. Sharp.
Died of Wounds: privates - John Boardman, Henry M. Howe, and Matthew Mitchell.
Wounded: Corporal John A. Gunn; privates - Charles L. Byam, Emery I. Bixby, William Brown, John B. Brown, John Carnagy [ Carnagg?], John A. Clark, Jeremiah Freeman, John Pierce, Joseph Perrigo, Sey- mour B. Plummer, Isaac N. Wood, and Lafayette Wiggins.
Prisoners: privates - Charles L. Byam, William Brown, Jeremiah Freeman, Charles Ovington, Isaac N. Wood, and Lafayette Wiggins.
COMPANY B
Killed: privates - Charles J. Cheeney, Monroe Har- din, Oliver B. Miller, William Sheets, John M. Sayre, and John W. Weaver; Corporal James H. Spurling, and Cap- tain Daniel Iseminger.
hundred and eighty-three. - War of the Rebellion: Official Records, Series I, Vol. X, Pt. 1, p. 103.
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Died of Wounds: Sergeant John W. Armstrong, and Private Z. M. Lanning.
Wounded: privates -Jesse L. Adkins, Andrew J. Egbert, James H. Hess, George F. Holmes, William J. Hamilton, Michael Karns [Kanis?], Ramond [ Ray- mond ?] Ross, James Riley Smith, and John Sharp.
Prisoners: Corporal George Albertson and Private Lemuel G. Knotts.
COMPANY C
Killed: Sergeant Charles J. Payne.
Died of Wounds: Sergeant John Lockard and Private George Reed.
Wounded: Sergeant Thomas J. Newport; privates ---- William J. Brown, Currency A. Gummere, and Charles A. Voils.
Prisoners: privates -- Martin V. Allen, Gilbert G. Vandervort, and Jackson Woodruff.
COMPANY D
Killed: privates - Oliver P. Atkinson, William De- lap, David W. McGee; Corporal George R. Vincent.
Wounded: First Sergeant Grotius N. Udell, Corporal Joseph K. Morey, Drummer Charles F. Stratton; pri- vates - John B. Armstrong, Benjamin F. Bradley, Peter Koontz [Kuhns ?], Thomas H. Morris, Marcellus Westen- haver; and Bugler Jerome B. Summers [ Sommers ?].
Prisoners : privates - Uri Hallock and James M. Zim- mer.
COMPANY E
Killed: First-Sergeant David J. Hays; privates - George A. Brown, William B. Crawford, John R. [L .? ] Harrison, Thomas MeKissick, James B. Duncan, Oliver P. Evans, William Swayney, Walter Smith[ ?], William
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AFTER SHILOH
H. Waugh, William H. Willsey [Company A?], George W. Willsey [Company A?], Frederick F. [Edward S .? ] Weed.
Died of Wounds : privates - Hilas L. Kells [Kills ?], Thomas Fullerton, Solomon Kellogg and Nathaniel Car- ter.
Wounded: Lieutenant John H. Orman, Corporal Ben- jamin F. Scott; privates - Cyrus N. Blue, Thomas B. Baker, Noah Carmach, Charles H. Claver, Levi S. T. Hat- ton, Joseph W. Hare, Grandison Hendrix, James E. Kel- logg [ Company C?], George A. Lewman [Looman?], Jo- seph McKissick, Thomas J. Smith, John W. Service, and William S. Whitmore.
Prisoners: Private Elias A. Miles and Sergeant Stephen J. Gahagan.
COMPANY F
Killed: corporals - Zeph. F. Delany and Jackson Wiggins; privates - James Hight, James Mardis and Grundy Lock.
Died of Wounds: Sergeant George W. Hess.
Wounded: Lieutenant John T. Grimes, Sergeant Elihu Gardner; corporals - Andrew Byers and Nathaniel Thrasher; privates -- Joseph N. Ballou, Edward Chan- bers, Jonathan L. Haggerty, John M. Ilunter, David T. McFarland, William Padgett, Alexander B. Stewart, and Clark Tripp.
Prisoners : privates - Elam Ford, William S. Moore, Alfred G. Ramine.
COMPANY G
Killed: Sergeant Lorenzo D. Prather, Corporal Wil- liam Davis, Private David Moreland.
Died of Wounds: privates -James Calhoun and George Reedy. 8
ب
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Wounded : corporals - Samuel J. Plymesser and John Ditto; privates - Thomas A. Clark, Perry L. Foot [Foote ?], John A. Green, William F. Green, Robert J. Jones, George A. Miller, George S. Richardson, William A. Richardson, Jacob Will; Captain John Williams.
Prisoners: Corporal John Ditto; privates - John A. Green, Charles Nickerman, George S. Richardson, and William Yingling.
COMPANY H
Killed: Corporal William T. Hufford; privates - George Knuck and Henry W. Smith.
Died of Wounds: privates - Albert M. Smith and Frank T. Scott.
Wounded: privates -John W. Hufford, Sanford P. Burk, James S. Ortman, Peter Robertson, and William Spain.
Prisoners: Sergeant Abraham B. Stevens, Corporal Daniel P. Fithian, Drummer William H. Price; privates -- John Carroll, William Church, James A. Cole, Daniel Fitz-Henry, Charles Hass; First-Sergeant John A. Mar- tin, Captain Washington Galland.
COMPANY I
Killed : privates - Archibald Conner, George W. Clark, Gustavus Johnson, David Key, and Christopher C. Phil- brook.
Died of Wounds: Musician Noyes W. Wadsworth and Private Albert Wentworth.
Wounded: privates - William Baker, John Harpman, James H. Herron, Charles Jericho, Wesley P. Kremer, Lewis L. Owens, William P. Patterson; Lieutenant Joseph S. Halliday, Captain Fabian Brydolf, and Private Wm. H. Milligan.
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AFTER SHILOH
Prisoners: Drummer J. Henry Monroe.
COMPANY K
Killed: privates - James Cackly and Henry Young; and Captain Richard E. White.
Died of Wounds: Corporal Robert Crawford and Private Franklin Ferry [Ferree or Furry ?].
Wounded : privates - Thomas Quillen, Andrew Part- ridge, Jacob B. Burris, Enos R. Clark, Benjamin H. Hut- chison, Thomas Townsend, William P. Taylor, Vine G. Williams; corporals - Arthur Wilson, Henry McCoy, William H. Hall; and sergeants -- William H. Arnold and John L. Cook.
Prisoners : privates - Jacob B. Burris, Gilbert E. De- long, and Theodore Schreiner [Schnenor ?].
The total Union loss in the battle of Shiloh was 13,047 men, of whom 1754 were killed, 8408 wounded, and 2885 missing. McDowell's brigade, including the Sixth Iowa, suffered a loss of 137 killed, 444 wounded, and 70 missing ; while Sherman's division lost 325 killed, 1277 wounded, and 299 missing. The total Confederate loss was 10,694 men, including 1723 killed, 8012 wounded, and 959 miss- ing.
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