USA > Illinois > Complete history of the 46th regiment, Illinois volunteer infantry, a full and authentic account of the participation of the regiment in the battles, sieges, skirmishes and expeditions in which it was engaged > Part 18
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CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.
Fort Donelson was garrisoned by a force of from 1500 to 1800 men, under command of General Floyd (once Secretary of War under President Buchanan), who concentrated his main force upon his left on Friday night and placed it under the command of General Pillow, with orders to attack McClernand, who commanded the right, early in the morning. General Buckner, in the meantime, was to fall on General Wallace, who held the centre, and open, if possible, the "Wynn road," that led back to the country. Only a small force was left to watch Gen. Smith, who com- manded the left of the federal lines, which, resting on the river below the Fort, completed our line of investment.
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Friday had been a cold and bleak day and the ground was covered with snow, but Saturday dawned damp and cold and the soldiers, as they were roused from the wintery couch, moved stiff and shivering to their places in the ranks. Seven or eight thousand strong, the enemy moved out of their works at daylight and in separate columns, supported by numerous ar- tillery, advanced straight on McClernand's encampment. His division con- sisted of three brigades, all Illinoisians, with the exception of one Ken- tucky and one Wisconsin regiment. The enemy flung themselves forward in such masses that our advance regiments had to contend against fearful odds. The country around Donelson is broken and hilly and covered with timber and brush, made up of hills and ravines, a strange battlefield.
But little concert of action could be had among the different regiments, for the woods swallowed up the contending lines and one could tell only by the advancing or receding roar of musketry, or columns of smoke, rising above the tree tops, how the battle was progressing. Backward and for- ward the contending forces surged through the forest, leaving it strewn with the dead and wounded. But suddenly concentrating an overwhelming number on a single point, broke through McClernand's lines and threatened to sweep the entire field. McAllister's battery, who had served so gallantly before this and made havoc with the rebel ranks, had, by ten o'clock, fired away 150 rounds of ammunition, and while he was trying to obtain more ammunition, a single shot from the enemy passed through three of his horses ; a second tore a trail off of one of his guns, while a third smashed a wheel of another. With only one gun left he hitched six horses to this and endeavored to drag it off the field, but after getting it a little way, it be- came mired and was abandoned with the others. Many of the regiments were out of ammunition and though they fell back in good order, could do nothing to stay the progress of the enemy, who came on with deafening yells. The day was apparently lost, but Gen. Wallace sent Col. Cruft with a brigade of his division, who reported and took position on the right of Gen. McCleruand and between him and the advancing enemy. While they were maintaining an unequal fight, a portion of one of McClernand's brigades gave way. Col. Shackelford, commanding this brigade, was com- pelled to fall back and take up a new position. The enemy again came on, but was repulsed. Gen. Wallace was yet undecided to move to the assistance of McClernand, as Gen. Grant was temporarily absent to confer with the gun boats. Wallace was waiting anxiously to render assistance, but, as yet, was waiting for orders from Gen. Grant. Col. W. H. L. Wal- lace, of the 11th Ill. Inf., in reply to Gen. Lew Wallace, in regard to the situation, asking of the state of affairs on the field, replied as coolly as though he were moving off parade, that the enemy were close behind and would attack him soon. These regiments were retreating in order to get a new supply of ammunition and halted, and the soldiers coolly filled their cartridge boxes under the enemy's fire. With the combined efforts of these
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commands the rebels were forced to seek the shelter of their breastworks. A charge on the works was contemplated by Gen. Grant. A forward move- ment was made, which caused the rebels to go to their inner works, which left a commanding view of the rebel works, thus the ground was again oc- cupied, from which Gen. McClernand was driven early in the engagement, and where the guns of McAllister stood, that fell in the hands of the enemy. Guns and supports were brought forward and the position made secure against any force the enemy could bring against it. From this point the whole of the rebel's strong works could be enfiladed. Thus ended the day and the cold long night came on, with no cheerful camp fire to light the gloom or warm the stiffened limbs of the weary soldiers. In the morning the assault, all along the lines, was to be made and as soon as the first drum called the soldiers together, though hungry and cold, they swiftly closed their ranks on the blood stained snow, while not a heart beat faint. At this moment Col. Lauman heard the clear, shrill strains of a bugle within the enemy's works, pealing forth neither reveille nor the rally. At- tracted by the strange sound he turned his eye thither and lo, a white flag was seen waving in the wind. The fort had surrendered. Then went up a long shout, which, taken up by regiment after regiment, as the exciting news traveled around the line, shook the heavens, till at last it reached the division of Wallace on the extreme right, about ready to move forward to the assault, and here the 46th Ill. gave their grand old cheer, U-N-I-O-N forever .- The night before the rebel Generals held a consultation in which it was decided that Floyd should hand over the command to Gen. Pillow, and he to Buckner, while the former made their escape with a brigade up the river.
About twelve thousand men with all their arms and stores, etc., fell into the hands of the Union army. It was a great victory in itself, but im- portant chiefly because it broke the rebel line of defense in the center and opened the gate to Nashville.
On the 15th of Feb., in the morning, the 46th was assigned a position near the right of the line, where the rebels had the day previous attempted to cut their way through and where it was apprehended, they would make another attempt. About 4 P. M., Feb. 16, Gen. Grant in person directed Col. Davis to support a battery that was about to open fire on the enemy. No sooner had the regiment taken its position, partially protected from the enemy's fire by a low ridge upon which the battery was posted, than the enemy opened a most terrific fire to dislodge our battery, which was an- noying them very much, wounding three of our men, one mortally. After having several horses killed and wounded the battery retired. Soon after Col. Davis withdrew the regiment to a more sheltered position, where it re- mained until night put a stop to all further work and then marched to its bivouac of the preceding night, which proved even more cheerless than the first.
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The regiment continued its march through the rebel works and into the town of Dover, where it was at once detailed to guard the immense stores left by the enemy upon the landing. Very soon gunboats and transports arrived at the landing loaded with troops and supplies, the latter of which were very acceptable to our almost famished soldiers.
THE 46TH AT DONELSON.
STATEMENT OF COL. DAVIS. Headquarters, 46th Ill. Vol.,
Fort Henry, Tenn., March 3, 1862.
Friend Judson :- The Journal of the 26th of Feb. made its welcome appearance here today. The boys think you do them injustice in a para- graph stating that they were not "in an exposed situation" in the battle of Fort Donelson, when, despite the unparalleled heroism and dauntless courage of Gen. McClernand's brigade, Saturday morning of the battle, they were compelled to give way before the foe's stronger columns; the regi- ment, being in position in the woods near Gen. Grant's headquarters and the center of the enemy's works, was ordered to the relief. Promptly and with loud cheers they formed into line and marched about the distance of a mile and a half, to near the left of the enemy's works, and during the en- tire march within half a mile of the intrenchments. With banners flying in sight and band and field music playing Yankee Doodle within hearing of the enemy, and with as bold and defiant a manner as freemen, marched to meet their country's foes. They were placed in position in the front line of the Union forces and as skirmishers, finding their way within two hundred yards of the enemy's rifle pits and driving back in double quick time a squadron of rebel cavalry, who had marched out of the enemy's left redoubt. Later in the day, when Gen. Smith was making his brave charge against the enemy's right, the regiment was ordered still further to the right of our lines to support Dresser's battery, which was ordered to a point midway between the enemy's redoubts and the head of the ravine that divided them, and not exceeding the distance of one hundred and twenty rods from either. In that position the regiment remained amid a shower of grape canister and shell from both the redoubts. The fire became so furious that the artillery soon retreated, rushing with wild speed down the hill, under the brow of which this regiment was in position, breaking through the centre of our lines; this regiment never leaving its position until long after the firing ceased, and they were ordered to take their former position.
The last cannon fired by the enemy at Fort Donelson was aimed at the 46th Regiment, and the boys would like to have the man for a comrade,
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who is so fearless of danger as to go through what they did on that memorable Saturday and not think he was in an exposed situation. The congratulatory order, given by General Lewis Wallace, spoke highly and in words of praise for the noble part taken by the 46th at the capture of Fort Donelson and while serving under his command.
GEN. WALLACE'S ORDER.
Headquarters, 3rd Div., U. S. Forces. Ft. Henry, Tenn., Feb. 28, 1862.
Soldiers of the 3rd Division, it was my good fortune to command you at the capture of Ft.'Donelson. Sickness has kept mne from thanking you for the patience, endurance, courage and discipline you showed on that oc- casion. The country ringing with the glory of that victory, thank you and its thanks are indeed precious. You were last to arrive before the fort, but it will be long before your deeds there are forgotten. When your gallant comrades of the 1st division, having fired their last cartridge, fell back up- on you for support you did not fail them. You received them as their heroism deserved, you encircled them with your ranks and drove back the foe that presumed to follow them, and to you, and to gallant regiments from the 2nd division, is due the honor of the last fight on the evening of the battle of Saturday, -- the re-conquest by the storm of the bloody hill on the right-the finishing blow to a victory, which has already purged Ken- tucky of treason and restored Tennessee to the confederacy of our fathers. All honor to you. LEWIS WALLACE, Gen. 3rd Div.
THE MARCH TO FORT HENRY.
On the 17th of Feb., the regiment was assigned to Gen. Thayer's brigade and ordered to proceed to Fort Henry, Tenn. It was provided with two 4 mule teams to carry the rations and cooking utensils, while the tents and all other baggage was forwarded by boat down the Cumberland and up the Tennessee rivers to Fort Henry. The regiment arrived at Fort Henry on the afternoon of the 19th of Feb., in a terrible rain storm, and through mud indescribable. While at the Fort the regiment occupied the log huts or barracks constructed by the Confederates, which proved convenient and comfortable.
On the fifth of march orders were received to proceed by boat up the Tennessee river. During that afternoon and night, with great difficulty and labor, the baggage, supplies and ammunition were put on board the
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S:camer "Aurora." The water was very high, overflowing the banks and filling the bayous, which made it necessary to transport all the baggage to the steamer in a few small and miserably constructed boats and dug-outs, making it a very tedious as well as laborious operation.
The regiment embarked on the 6th and started up the river on the 7th. After many delays it arrived at Savannah, Tenn., on the 12th. It laid in the vicinity of Savannah until the morning of the 18th, when it proceeded up the river, arriving at Pittsburg Landing on the same evening. March 19th, disembarked and went into camp one and a half miles from the landing, the men having to carry the greater part of their tents and baggage to camp, for the want of other means of transportation. The trip from Fort Henry to Pittsburg Landing, on account of the crowded condition of the boat, bad water, and want of proper opportunity for exercise, proved very injurious to the health of the regiment. Several died on the way and the sick list was largely increased.
Before leaving Fort Henry the regiment was assigned to the 2nd Brigade, 4th Division. The brigade consisted of the 14th, 15th and 46th Illinois, and the 25th Indiana Infantry and was commanded by Col. James C. Veatch of the latter regiment. The Division was commanded by Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut, of Illinois. The regiment remained quietly in camp, drilling and doing camp and picket duty, until the battle of Shiloh, on the 6th and 7th of April. On the night of the 4th of April, our camps were alarmed and our brigade moved out about two miles to Gen. Sher- man's camp, when we were ordered back, being told that it was a false alarm.
FIELD OF OPERATIONS.
On the 1st of Jan., 1862, Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston was in command of all the Confederate forces of Tennessee and Kentucky. His troops occu- pied a line of defense extending from Columbus, Ky., through Fort Henry and Donelson to Bowling Green, Ky., where Gen. Johnston had his head- quarters.
General H. W. Halleck at that date was commander of the department of Missouri, with headquarters at St. Louis, and Gen. D. C. Buell com- manded the department of the Ohio, with headquarters at Louisville, Ky. The Cumberland river formed the boundary separating these two depart- ments. Various plans had been canvassed by Generals Halleck and Buell, participated in by the General-in-chief, for an attack on the Confederate line. Halleck had asked to have Buell's army transferred to him, or at least placed under his command, claiming that without such union and an army of at least 60,000 men under one command, it would be impossible to break the well established lines of Johnston. Before such union could be
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effected and before Gen. Halleck had received a reply to his request, Gen. Grant asked for and received permission to attack the line at Fort Henry on the Tennessee river. Assisted by the gunboat fleet of Commodore Foote, Grant captured Fort Henry on the 6th of Feb., and then moved upon Fort Donelson, captured that place with 15,000 persons on the 16th. The loss of these Forts broke Gen. Johnston's line at its center and compelled him to evacuate Columbus and Bowling Green, abandon Tennessee and Ken- tucky to the Union army and seek a new line of defense on the Memphis and Charleston railroad. Gen. Halleck was displeased with Grant, be- cause he sent a division of troops into Buell's department at Clarksville. This displeasure was increased when he learned that Gen. Grant had gone to Nashville for consultation with Gen. Buell. Halleck directed the with- drawal of Smith's division from Clarksville, suspended Gen. Grant from command and ordered him to Fort Henry to await orders. He then placed Gen. C. F. Smith in command of all the troops, to proceed up the Ten- nessee river and to make an effort to break the Confederate line on the Memphis and Charleston railroad at some place near Florence. Gen. Smith's advance reached Savannah, Tenn., March 13th, 1862. Having determined to make that point his base of operations, he landed the troops that accompanied his advance, and sent boats back for supplies and the re- mainder of his army. Previous to this time a gunboat fleet had passed up the Tennessee river as far as Florence; at Pittsburg Landing this fleet en- countered a small force of Confederates, consisting of the Eighteenth La. Inft., Gibson's battery of artillery and some cavalry. The gunboats shelled the position and drove away the Confederates. The fleet proceeded to Florence, and on its return landed a small party at Pittsburg Landing to investigate. They found a dismounted thirty-two pounder gun on the river bluff, and about one mile out a hospital with several Confederate sol- diers that had been wounded a few days before in the engagement with the fleet. A Confederate picket stopped the advance and the party returned to the boats. Lieut. Gwin, of the gunboat "Tyler," pointed out to Gen. Sher- man the advantages of Pittsburg Landing as one high and dry, with roads to Corinth. Gen. Sherman reported these facts to Gen. Smith and asked that the place be occupied in force while demonstrations were being made against Burnville. In compliance with this request Gen. Hurlbut's division was at once dispatched by boats to Pittsburg Landing. Heavy rains and high water compelled Gen. Sherman to return to his boats and give up the attempt to reach Burnville. Finding no other accessible landing place, he dropped down to Pittsburg Landing, where he found Hurlbut's division on boats. He was directed to disembark his division and Hurlbut's, and put them in camp far enough back to afford room for other divisions of the army to encamp near the river. Hurlbut's division formed its camp one mile in the rear of Sherman's, near the crossing of Corinth and Hainburg and Savannah roads.
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On March 11, the department of Missouri and Ohio were consolidated under the name of the department of Mississippi, and Maj. Gen. Hal- leck was assigned to the command, giving him, from that date, the control he had sought of, both armies then operating in Tennessee.
Gen. Smith about this time received an injury to his leg, while stepping from a gunboat into a yawl. The injury took such serious form that the General was obliged to relinquish command of the troops and Gen. Grant was restored to duty and ordered by Gen. Halleck to repair to Savannah and take command of the troops in that vicinity. Upon his arrival at Sa- vannah, March 17th, Gen. Grant found his army divided, a part on either side of the Tennessee river. He at once reported to Gen. Halleck the exact situation, and in answer was directed to"destroy the railroad connections at Corinth." To carry out this order, Gen. Grant transferred the remainder of his army, except a small garrison at Savannah, to the west side of the river, concentrating the first, second, fourth and fifth divisions at Pittsburg Landing, and the third at Crump's Landing, six miles below. Gen. Mc- Clernand, with the first division, formed his camp in the rear of Sherman's right brigade. Gen. W. H. L. Wallace, commanding the 2nd Division, en- camped to the right of Hurlbut's, between Corinth road and Snake creek. A new division, sixth, just organized under Gen. Prentiss, out of new troops, went into camp as the regiments arrived between Hilderbrand's and Stewart's brigade, of Sherman's division; its center on the eastern Corinth road. Gen. Lew Wallace, commanding the third division, placed his first brigade at Crumps, his second brigade at Stoney Lonesome, and his third brigade at Adamsville, five miles out on the Purdy road.
On March 10th, Gen. Halleck wrote Gen. McClellan : "I propose going to the Tennessee in a few days to take personal command." Pending his arrival at the front his orders to Smith, to Sherman and to Grant were: "My instructions not to bring on an engagement must be strictly obeyed," but when informed by Gen. Grant that the contemplated attack upon Corinth would make a general engagement inevitable, Halleck at once ordered, "By all means keep your forces together until you connect with Gen. Buell. Don't let the enemy draw you into an engageinent now." To this Gen. Grant replied : "All troops have been concentrated near Pittsburg Landing." The army of the Tennessee, commanded by Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant, was, on the 5th day of April, 1862, composed of six divisions, the Ist commanded by Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand; the 2nd by Brigadier Gen. W. H. L. Wallace, the 3d by Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace, the 4th by Brigadier S. A. Hurlbut, the 5th by Brigadier Gen. W. T. Sherman, and the 6th by Brig. Gen. B. M. Prentiss. By the official returns, April 5, 1862, there were present for duty in the five divisions of the army of the Tennessee and Pittsburg Landing, infantry, artillery and cavalry, officers and men, 39,830; in the 3rd division at Crump's Landing, officers and men, 7,564, which would leave 32,266, or as Gen. Grant in his memoirs says, that
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at no time during the battle on Sunday more than 33,000 effective men were engaged, and excluding the panic stricken troops, who fled before they fired a shot, there was not a time during Sunday the 6th, when there were more than 25,000 men in the battle line engaged .- See Maj. Gen. U. S. Grant's Ist volume of his personal Memoirs, page 366 .--
Quotations from Maj. Reed's description of the battle of Shiloh have been, as Gen. Grant says, "persistently misunderstood than any other battle of the war." It is as common among Confederate soldiers as among Union soldiers, and exists equally among the people of the North and the people of the South, and is to be accounted for by false and inaccurate re- ports of the battle, which were first given to the public by newspaper cor- respondents, who obtained their information from stragglers far in the rear of the army. These reports were incorporated by some of the would-be historians into their books and papers without an inquiry as to the truth or falsity of the report. As a result we still read articles which reproduce the startling headlines of the newspaper announcing, "The great surprise at Shiloh," "The camp of a whole division captured at daylight while the men were asleep in their tents;" "Officers bayonetted in their beds," etc. These articles quite frequently assume or assert that these statements are true and procced to moralize on the battle of Shiloh from that standpoint.
The official reports from Union and Confederate officers agree that the first shots of the battle of Shiloh were fired at 4:55 o'clock Sunday morning in an engagement between pickets of Hardie's corps and a recon- noitering party sent out by General Prentiss, and they also show that this picket firing was at a point more than one mile in advance of the Union camps; that from that point the Confederate advance was stubbornly re- sisted for fully four hours before a camp was captured; that over one thousand Union soldiers and at least an equal number of Confederates were killed or wounded far in front of the line of camps. While this fierce conflict was in progress all the troops upon the field had gotten in line and it is absurd to claim that any soldiers remained asleep in tents, or were unprepared for battle until 9 o'clock in the morning, while heavy batteries of artillery and twenty thousand infantry were engaged for four hours in a fierce conflict in front of his camp. Doubtless an earnest effort by those in authority might have corrected many errors in regard to Shiloh at the time, but there seems to have been a willingness to let the report stand as a reflection upon the army of the Tennessee and as an excuse for placing its commander in retirement without the privilege of even reviewing the report of the battle he had fought and won. The Confederates also had a disagreement. Their first newspaper reports were as unreliable and their official reports show like evidence of misunderstanding and jealousy. Gen. Johnston was killed on the field on Sunday. His version of the plan of battle and his purposes could only be given by the members of his staff, who
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at once claimed that the battle would have been won if it had been pushed upon the plan which Gen. Johnston had inaugurated before he was killed. Gen. Beauregard, in his report enters upon a defense of his management of the battle after Gen. Johnston fell. Subordinates take sides for and against their chief with such earnestness that some of the reports take the form of personal controversies, which tend to a confused rather than a perfect understanding of the battle."
In order to fairly present these official reports and to show their con- nection, months have been spent in their careful study and comparison in connection with the accurate topographical maps prepared by the Shiloh National Military Park Commission, as well as in actual tests and measure- ments upon the field, where each movement had been followed and verified until all have been made to harmonize.
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