USA > Ohio > Four years in the saddle. History of the First Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 > Part 4
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About midnight a terrible rain storm came up, and the lightning flashed, the thunder roared, and it seemed that the artillery of the heavens were vieing with the artillery of the battle-field of Shiloh, which had been roaring all day. Still on we marched, and it seemed a perfect "bedlam" until finally we halted, and whether by order or from sheer exhaustion, is very uncertain. The men were ordered to make themselves as com- fortable as they could in any way, and a number made a rush for a double log stable, which could be seen near the road by the flashes of lightning, and, tieing our horses to the logs on the outside, climbed up into the hay-mow - found no hay, but lay down on the pole floor, glad to get out of the rain. The lightning continued in a perfect blaze until about daybreak, and we got but little rest, as the horses were pawing and snort- ing all the time, and this, with the roar of the storm, made it impossible to sleep. We were glad to see daylight dawn agam, and it can be safely said that this was one of the hardest marches and one of the most disagreeable nights the regiment ever passed through in the service.
We found, on the morning of the eighth, that we were near Savannah, and we marched in early and bivouacked in the sub- urbs, and learned of the great victory of the day before and saw many wounded soldiers who had made their way down from the battle-field. Our wagons and sick men were sent down to Clifton, a small town on the Tennessee River a few miles
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below Savannah, and the regiment was ordered to march up on the north side of the river to Pittsburg Landing, distant about eight miles, and the infantry and artillery of Thomas' division were taken up on the transports.
The rain had been so heavy that the streams were very much swollen, and the flat country along the river was covered . with water.
We came to one stream with high banks, the current running very swift, and as there was no ford, it seemed at first that we could not make the crossing at that point. After a short halt, a few of the more venturesome plunged in and swam their horses across, but as the banks were steep on the opposite side, they had hard work getting up, and there was great danger of the horses falling back and injuring or drowning their riders. A rude foot bridge was found a short distance down the stream, and it was decided to let the horses swim across without their riders. Bridle reins were tied up, and carbines taken off the saddles, the column was led by two or three reckless fellows, and the other horses were urged over the bank as rapidly as possible, and soon a column of riderless horses were swimming the stream, following each other like a flock of sheep, and the men crossed rapidly on the foot bridge, caught their horses on the other side, and in this manner the stream was safely forded.
That night we went into camp on the north side of the river, immediately opposite Pittsburg Landing, right on the river bank and only a few yards from the gun boats, Tyler and Lexington, anchored on the north side, with their black-mouthed guns glar- ing out from the port-holes. Our camp was in an old cane-field, without any tents, as they were all with the wagon trains. The sky had cleared up during the day, and the sun came out warm and everything seemed favorable for a good night's rest. Most of the men made their beds in the old furrows of the plowed field, first gathering and throwing down some old cane stocks. During the night another rain storm came up, and it poured down in torrents. The furrows were soon flooded, the men com- pletely soaked, and for the balance of the night all they could do was to stand or sit against the trees along the river bank.
The next morning, the ninth, we were a well drenched and sorry-looking set, and how we envied the gun-boat boys as they came out on the decks in their neat, clean, jaunty uniforms and polished shoes!
During the forenoon we boarded the transports and were transferred across the river to Pittsburg Landing, which con- sisted of two or three old houses, of which one was log, and it was simply a landing for loading cotton, and the high bank was cut down to an easy incline, and as soon as the regiment commenced landing, we could begin to see some of the effects
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of the battle of the two previous days. Wounded and dead men were lying along the bank, and some of them almost to the edge of the water, just as they had been carried down with hundreds of the other wounded to be loaded on the hospital boats, and many had died of their wounds before they could be transferred to the boats. Around the landing there was a broad plateau, clear and bare, of several acres, and here stood a few pieces of artillery with blackened muzzles toward the battle-field, where they had been belching forth shot and shell for two days. It was a busy scene around the landing, many transports and hos. pital boats were in the river, thousands of rations and tons of supplies were being unloaded from the boats, and loaded into the hundreds of wagons from the front. Ambulances were still bringing in the wounded, wagons were hauling in the dead, and they were being piled up like cord wood beside the long trenches being dug, in which they were to be buried in their coats of blue, many of them not even wrapped in their army blankets. Such was the scene that greeted us as we marched across the plateau at Pittsburg Landing that April day in 1862, the first, and it may be truly said, one of the worst battle-fields we saw during the war, as the rear of any army after a battle always looks demoralized and has all the sickening and depress- ing scenes.
As we moved out a few hundred yards to the edge of the timber, we began to see the effects of the shells from the gun- boats and batteries. Limbs from the trees, in some instances a foot or more in diameter, were cut off, some low down and others in the tops of the trees, while the bodies of the large trees were pierced with solid shot, and some of them split and torn and almost ready to fall. Broken guns, carriages, caissons and wheels were scattered thick, and on every side could be seen the results of the carnage and wreck of battle.
The regiment marched out about a mile and bivouacked, as we had no tents, and out that distance it was a regular sea of mud. Teams made no pretense of following a road, as there was no road to be seen, and a team of four horses hitched to a caisson loaded with one bale of hay, weighing from three to four hundred pounds, would sometimes mire down and stick fast.
Dead horses were to be seen everywhere, swollen up and giving out a terrible stench, as the sun was coming down hot, and as the ground was wet, wherever the ground was cleared a hot and sickening steam was rising. All the water we had for drinking and cooking was from the ravines, gullies and rivu- lets, all being fed by water from the ground covered by dead soldiers, mules and horses.
We bivouacked on the battle-field until the seventeenth of April, under these conditions, before our tents arrived, as we had not seen them since the sixth, and there was not twenty-
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four hours passed during those twelve days but that there was a soaking rain, and our blankets and clothing were never dry.
We kept big fires of logs burning almost continuously to dry our clothing, blankets and equipments, and devised all kinds of plans to keep our blankets up off the wet ground, and to keep our arms and ammunition dry. Many of the soldiers cut poles with their hatchets about ten or twelve feet long, and put about three of them together, one end of them on a log and the other on the ground. On these poles they would first lay their saddle blankets, and then their sleeping blankets, and if it was not too cold their overcoats, and at the head of the bed, next to the log, lay their carbines, sabers, revolvers, cross-wise, and then the ammunition, and on top of this their saddles for a pillow, and, as is well known, a cavalry saddle is a wooden tree cov- ered with raw hide, so it is not a very downy pillow. His bed was soon all ready, and, lying down and covering himself with his rubber blanket or talma, he was ready for the rain, and if he was a six-footer, he had to keep himself pretty well curled up or his feet or head would be out in the rain.
One of the first things a soldier must learn is to take care of himself, make the best of everything and no grumbling, and, as the "Yankees" say, "be shifty."
During the two weeks we were on the battle-field in rainy and miserable weather, without our tents, the soldier learned many things about caring for himself that was of good service to him throughout the war.
The first few days the members of the regiment put in much of the time in looking over the battle-field, and as there were many soldiers yet unburied, they saw, in some places, the dead lying so near each other that they could step from one to the other. In a spot of about three acres of cleared ground we counted seventy dead rebels who had been killed while making a charge across this little space of ground against a thicket of small trees, the bushes of which were riddled and almost mowed down by musket balls.
The regiment was put on picket duty at once, and each day, as the line advanced, we could see fresh evidence of the rout and stampede of the rebel army, by the wreck and debris left behind in their hurried retreat. Tents were here and there standing with hundreds of stands of small arms scattered over their camps, with flour meal and camp equipage. At one place was about half a wagon load of bowie knives, made out of old files, butcher knives, with leather scabbards and sheathes.
About ten days after the battle, when the regiment was on picket, some of the boys discovered twenty-four dead rebels lying near together in two rows, with feet towards each other, and a space of a yard or two between, as if they had been in a hospital tent and died of their wounds, and then the tent
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had been removed. Some of them had haversacks and others canteens strung across their shoulders, and they were swollen and their faces blackened beyond recognition.
Word was sent back to the camps and a detail of infantry was sent out to bury them, which was certainly a very disagree- able .duty.
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CO. F. -
CO. E.
CO. H.
Serg't. I. F. Knoderer.
Lieu't. Robt. Johns.
Serg't. Daniel N. B. Evans.
CO. K.
צי
Serg't. J. W. Chapin.
CO. I.
Serg't. Maj. J. S. Dollinger.
CO. G.
Serg't. Maj. Carter M. Riggs.
CO. K.
Corp. A. A. Hill.
CO. F.
W. L. Hoy.
CO. I ..
Lieu't. Sam Putnam.
Battle of Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh.
April 6 and 7, 1862.
The First Ohio Cavalry was not under fire in the battle of Pittsburg Landing, yet it was a part of the army of Ohio which, under General Buell, contributed very largely to the vic- tory of our army in the second day's battle, and the members of the regiment take a just pride in that fact.
The regiment occupied the field the day after the battle and was actively engaged with the advance of the army during the siege of Corinth from April S until May 30, the date of the evacuation of that stronghold. For that reason I have thought best to publish some extracts from the pens of prominent com- manders of both the Union and Confederate army, as it will be a subject of interest to every soldier who participated in that campaign. It is not unjust to any commander; then let each reader study the history of that great battle carefully and draw his own conclusions as to the much discussed question, "Was Grant's army surprised on the morning of April 6, 1862?"
It was the third greatest battle of the war and was fought without rifle pit, earth works or barricades of any kind - an open field fight between the flower of the Northern and Southern armies.
The rebel army, under Johnson, had 49,444 men with twenty batteries of artillery, making about eighty pieces, while Grant in the first day's battle had 37,335 men and fifty pieces of artil- lery. In the second day's fight General Lew Wallace came up with his division of 7,564 men and twelve pieces of artillery, and Buell arrived with the army of Ohio, with about 20,000, mak- ing a grand total in both armies of 114,343 soldiers who took part in the battle, making 258 organizations, and the losses aggregated nearly 30,000. 3
In the National Cemetery at Pittsburg Landing there are buried nearly 4,000 Union Soldiers, and on the battle-field 4,000
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Confederate soldiers are buried; besides these, many of the dead of both armies were taken north and south by their friends and buried at home. No great battle of the war has been so much discussed as the battle of Shiloh, the great question being, Was Grant's army surprised, and would his army have been defeated and driven into the Tennessee River, had it not been for the timely arrival of the Army of Ohio, commanded by Gen- eral Buell, on the evening of the first day's battle?
Whether or not it was a surprise, it is not the province of the writer of a regimental history to discuss. A historian, in writing of the battle of Shiloh, says: "We cannot find infalli- bility in mortal man, to err is human." "Our Generals were then struggling with the theories of war, and it was necessary, as it now seems, at Shiloh to go through the red hot, boiling, seeth. ing caldron of disaster, which would be such a bitter experience that forever after no enemy caught them napping."
Johnson's line of battle was formed one and one-half miles in front of Sherman's camp at 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon, April 5, 1862, and the attack would have been made that even- ing, but Bragg's corps did not get into position until 6 o'clock. About this time Sherman was sending dispatches to Grant, in which he said, "All is quiet along my lines, I do not apprehend anything like an attack upon our position." The army did not seem to have any thought of danger at that time, yet the whole Confederate army was in line of battle only a mile and one-half in front of our camps at 6 o'clock Saturday evening, and at 5 o'clock the next morning the battle was opened.
An officer who was on the field all day and saw Grant, writes thus of the battle: "No great battle was fought under such peculiar circumstances, no battle ever had so much history, and of no battle was so little truth known after it was over." "All was ignorance before the battle; all was confusion during the battle; all was conjecture and rumor after the battle."
The bone of contention has been not only as to the surprise at Shiloh, but also whether Grant gave full credit to the Army of Ohio, commanded by General Buell, for the victory in the last day's battle.
The following communications from Buell to Grant a few days before the battle show how Buell was making every effort to reach Savannah before Grant's army was attacked.
(Series I, Volume 10, Part 2, Page 70.)
Camp near Columbia, Tenn., via Nashville, March 27, 1862, 9 A. M.
Major-General Halleck:
I arrived here yesterday. The progress of the bridge over Duck River has been much slower than I expected, but the diffi- culties have been greater than I supposed. I find that the bridge
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cannot be ready for crossing until Monday. I shall then move rapidly forward. My messenger returned last night from Gen. eral Grant with a communication dated the twenty-fourth and verbal information that he is cutting a road. No information of interest.
D. C. BUELL, Major-General.
(Series I, Volume 10, Part 2, Page 91.) Camp Three Miles West of Waynesborough, 4, 4, 1862
General Grant, Savannah:
I shall be in Savannah myself to-morrow with one, per- haps two, divisions. Can I meet you there? Have you any information for me that should affect my movements? What of your enemy and your relative positions; what force at Flor- ence or Corinth? We will require forage as soon as we arrive and provisions in two or three days after. Has a steamer ar- rived with a bridge for me?
D. C. BUELL, Commanding.
Also the following dispatch from Grant to Halleck is of interest:
(Series I, Volume 10, Part 2, Page 67.)
Savannah, March 26, 1862( via Paducah, 3, 27).
Major-General H. W. Halleck, St. Louis, Mo .:
My scouts are just in with a letter from General Buell. The three divisions coming this way are yet on the east side of Duck River, detained bridge building. Rebel cavalry are scattered through from here to Nashville gathering supplies. Through citizens I learn that a large quantity of pork for the Southern army is in store forty miles below here. I have boat and detail now getting it. No news from Corinth.
U. S. GRANT, Major-General.
The following extract from the reports of General Grant shows that at that time he appreciated very highly the efficient service of the Army of the Ohio, whatever may have been written or said by him since the war.
(Series I, Volume 10, Part 1, Page 108.)
Reports of Gen. U. S. Grant, U. S. Army, commanding Army of the Tennessee.
Pittsburg, April 7, 1862.
Yesterday the rebels attacked us here with an overwhelm- ing force, driving our troops in from their advance position to near the Landing. General Wallace was immediately ordered up from Crump's Landing, and in the evening one division of
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General Buell's army and General Buell in person arrived. Dur- ing the night one other division arrived, and still another to-day. This morning, at the break of day, I ordered an attack, which resulted in a fight which continued until late this afternoon, with severe loss on both sides, but a complete repulse of the enemy. I shall follow to-morrow far enough to see that no immediate renewal of an attack is contemplated.
U. S. GRANT, Major-General. Major-General II. W. Halleck, St. Louis Mo.
Pittsburg, Tenn. (via Savannah), April 8, 1862.
Enemy badly routed and fleeing towards Corinth. Our cav- alry, supported by infantry, are now pursuing him, with instruc- tions to pursue to the swampy grounds near Pea Ridge. I want transports here for our wounded.
U. S. GRANT.
(Series I, Volume 10, Part 1, Pages 108, 109, 110, 111.) Extract from report of U. S. Grant.
Pittsburg, Tenn., April 8, 1862.
Captain: - It becomes my duty again to report another battle fought between two great armies, one contending for the maintenance of the best Government ever devised, the other for its destruction. It is pleasant to record the success of the army contending for the former principle.
On Sunday morning our pickets were attacked and driven in by the enemy. Immediately the five divisions stationed at this place were drawn up in line of battle, ready to meet them. The battle soon waxed warm on the left and centre, varying at times to all parts of the line. The most continuous firing of musketry and artillery ever heard on this continent was kept up until night-fall, the enemy having forced the entire line to fall back nearly half way from their camps to the Landing.
At a late hour in the afternoon a desperate attempt was made by the enemy to turn our left and get possession of the Landing, transports, etc. This point was guarded by the gun- boats Tyler and Lexington, Captains Gwin and Shirk, U. S. Navy, commanding, four 20-pounder Parrot guns and battery of rifled guns. As there is a deep and impassable ravine for artillery or cavalry, and very difficult for infantry, at this point, no troops were stationed here, except the necessary artilleries and a small infantry force for their support. Just at this moment the advance of Major-General Buell's column (a part of the division under General Nelson) arrived, the two Generals named both being present. An advance was immediately made upon the point of attack and the enemy soon driven back. In this repulse much is due to the presence of the gun-boats Tyler and Lexing- ton, and their able commanders, Captains Gwin and Shirk.
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During the night the divisions under Generals Crittenden and McCook arrived. General Lewis Wallace, at Crump's Land- ing, six miles below, was ordered at an early hour in the morning to hold his division in readiness to be moved in any direction to which it might be ordered. At about 11 o'clock the order was delivered to move up to Pittsburg, but owing to its being led a circuitous route did not arrive in time to take part in Sunday's action.
During the night all was quiet, and feeling that a great moral advantage would be gained by becoming the attacking party, an advance was ordered as soon as the day dawned. The result was a gradual repulse of the enemy at all parts of the line from morning until probably 5 o'clock in the afternoon, when it became evident the enemy was retreating. Before the close of the action the advance of General T. J. Wood's division arrived in time to take part in the action.
My force was too much fatigued from two days' hard fight- ing and exposure in the open air to a drenching rain during the intervening night to pursue immediately.
Night closed in cloudy and with heavy rain, making the roads impracticable for artillery by the next morning. General Sherman, however, followed the enemy, finding that the main part of the army had retreated in good order.
Hospitals of the enemy's wounded were found all along the road as far as pursuit was made. Dead bodies of the enemy and many graves were also found.
General Buell, coming on the field with a distinct army long under his command, and which did such efficient service, com- manded by himself in person on the field, will be much better able to notice those of his command who particularly distin- guished themselves than I possibly can.
The country will have to mourn the loss of many brave men who fell at the battle of Pittsburg, or Shiloh, more prop- erly. The exact loss in killed and wounded will be known in a day or two. At present I can only give it approximately at 1,500 killed and 3,500 wounded.
The loss of artillery was great, many pieces being disabled by the enemy's shots and some losing all their horses and many men. There were probably not less than 200 horses killed.
The loss of the enemy in killed and left upon the field was greater than ours. In wounded the estimate cannot be made, as many of them must have been sent back to Corinth and other points. The enemy suffered terribly from demoralization.
(Series I, Volume 10, Part 1, Pages 111 and 112.)
General Orders No. 34.
Headquarters District of West Tennessee, Pittsburg, April 8, 1862.
The General commanding congratulates the troops who so
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gallantly maintained, repulsed and routed a numerically superior force of the enemy, composed of the flower of the Southern army, commanded by their ablest Generals, and fought by them with all the desperation of despair.
In numbers engaged, no such contest ever took place on this continent; in importance of results, but few such have taken place in the history of the world.
Whilst congratulating the brave and gallant soldiers, it becomes the duty of the General commanding to make special notice of the brave wounded and those killed upon the field. Whilst they leave friends and relatives to mourn their loss, they have won a nation's gratitude and undying laurels, not to be forgotten by future generations, who will enjoy the blessings of the best government the sun ever shone upon, preserved by their valor.
By order of Major-General U. S. Grant:
JOHN A. RAWLINS, Asst. Adjutant-General.
Gen. Alfred Roman, in his history of "The Military Opera- tions of General Beauregard, during the War," writes very en- tertainingly, and the following extracts from his history give a view of the beginning of the battle of Shiloh from the Confed- erate side. He says:
"Our forces could not get into position for battle until late on the afternoon of the fifth - too late to commence the action on that day. As soon as it had become evident that the day was too far advanced for a decisive engagement, General Johns- ton called the corps and reserve commanders together in an informal council, on the roadway, near his temporary headquar- ters, within less than two miles of those of General Sherman, at the Shiloh meeting-house. Our plan of operations had been foiled by the tardiness of our troops in starting from Corinth, followed by such delayed and noisy demonstrations on the march, that a surprise, which was the basis of his plan, was now scarcely to be hoped for; that ample notice of our proximity for an aggressive movement must have been given through the con- flict of our cavalry, on the preceding day, with the enemy's reconnoitering force, and the prolongation of our presence in front of their positions before the hour for battle, next morning; that the Federal army would, no doubt, be found intrenched to the eyes, and ready for our attack. We knew from the careful examination of Colonel Crocket, the Federal officer captured on the fourth, that up to the evening of that day there were no breastworks; but the several warnings given by the conflict in which he was captured, the noisy incidents of the next day's march and reconnoisance, and our presence in full force on the field for fifteen hours before the attack, were facts which forced General Beauregard to believe the Federals would surely use the ample time they had, during that night, to throw up intrench-
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