Chapter 22:
- Commentaries on the battle of Shiloh: I. Why Generals Johnston and Beauregard did not sooner move the army from Corinth. -- II. their reasons for forming their lines of battle as they did. -- III. why the Confederate attack was made chiefly on the enemy's right, and not on his entire front. -- IV. demonstration of the fact that the Confederate attack took the enemy completely by surprise. -- V. General Beauregard's opinion and criticism of General Sherman's tactics during the battle. -- VI. Refutation of the charge that the Confederate troops were withdrawn too soon from the battle-field on the evening of the 6th. -- comparison drawn by Mr. Davis between General A. S. Johnston and Marshal Turenne. -- VII. General Beauregard's opinion as to the fighting of the Confederates during the battle of the 7th. -- VIII. correction of the absurd story that General Beauregard did not leave his ambulance during the first day of the battle, and, when informed of General Johnston's death, ‘quietly remained where he was, waiting the issue of events.’
I.
Generals Johnston and Beauregard have both been censured for not moving sooner and more rapidly from Corinth, to attack the Federals at Pittsburg Landing, so as to anticipate General Buell's junction with General Grant. The causes of this delay, as already given in the preceding chapters, sufficiently absolve the two Confederate commanders from any just blame. The reader will pardon us for briefly reverting to them.
General Beauregard, it will be remembered, only arrived at Jackson, Tennessee, on the 17th of February. General Polk, with about fourteen thousand five hundred men of all arms, was in command in that military district. Four days after General Beauregard's arrival, and before he had yet formally assumed command, he despatched five officers of his staff to the governors of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, to ascertain whether they could send him, at Corinth, the State troops they had available at that time; and he also requested General Johnston, who was then at Murfreesboroa, retiring, with some fifteen thousand [327] men, from Bowling Green and Nashville, to Stevenson, to change the direction of his retreat to Decatur, Alabama, that he might more readily form a junction with the forces at Corinth, at the proper time. To this request, General Johnston willingly acceded.
By the 27th of March, with our defective means of transportation, and restricted supplies of all kinds, General Beauregard had assembled, at and about Corinth, an army of over forty thousand men, exclusive of some nine thousand occupying the Mississippi River defences, at New Madrid, Island No.10, and Fort Pillow. And General Van Dorn, at General Beauregard's request, was moving rapidly from Van Buren, Arkansas, with an army of nearly twenty thousand men, to unite also with our forces at Corinth. He would have arrived in time to take a part in the battle of Shiloh, had he not been delayed by high waters, which prevented his marching to Memphis, when he could not immediately procure sufficient river transportation. Even with these obstacles to overcome, General Van Dorn's troops commenced arriving at Memphis on the 10th of April, only three days after the battle of Shiloh. How different might have been the result, had he arrived in time!
Great difficulties were encountered in organizing and supplying so many troops, hastily gathered up from such remote points. These difficulties were increased by the want of experienced officers, to take charge of the brigades and divisions as soon as formed. A delay of one or two days may be attributed to that cause alone. The War Department had promised General Beauregard a certain number of officers, below the rank of brigadier-generals, designated by him, from his army of the Potomac, so as to assist in organizing the troops of his new command, if needed; but that promise was only partly complied with, and much too late.
Generals Johnston and Beauregard intended to move from Corinth, on or about the 1st of April, with the hope of beginning their attack against the Federals on the morning of the 3d, at latest; whereas they were not able to leave until the latter day, and did not get into position before the afternoon of the 5th, at too advanced an hour to open the attack immediately. With better disciplined troops, the march of less than eighteen miles could have been made in one day; but two of our corps, Generals Polk's and Bragg's, which had been recently organized, were mostly composed of commands not yet used to marching. General [328] Polk's corps was, besides, rather slow in starting; and we were two days in passing over that short distance.
II.
It has pleased some hypercritical military writers, also, to criticise severely the order of battle adopted at Shiloh. They think that a great mistake was made, in deploying the different corps, in successive lines,1 along the whole front of battle, instead of intrusting a part of that front to each corps, itself formed on several lines.
The first merit of a commander is, to be able to adapt the means at his disposal to the circumstances in which he is placed, and to apply them, in the simplest manner possible, to the accomplishment of the object in view. Our ‘corps’ were thus designated, not only for the purpose of deceiving the enemy as to the number of our troops, which we wished to exaggerate, but also to inspire our own men with greater confidence. The truth is, that these corps were properly ‘divisions,’ at least in size, and were composed only of from four to five brigades, averaging each about two thousand infantry, so that the first line, General Hardee's, consisting of four brigades, contained some eight thousand five hundred bayonets, and the second line—five hundred yards in rear of the first—consisting of five brigades, under General Bragg, had about fifteen hundred more bayonets, or nearly ten thousand in all. General Polk's corps and General Breckinridge's division composed the first of four brigades, numbering not over eight thousand five hundred men, and the second, of about six thousand, gave a total of less than thirty-five thousand infantry. The forces of Generals Polk and Breckinridge were formed in columns of brigades, at proper intervals, in rear of the second line of battle. Our front was therefore of limited extent for one command, compared to many other fronts of battle subsequently used during the war, especially in Virginia, with the corps of Generals Jackson and Longstreet.
General Hardee's command, used to marching and moving as an organized body, under that cool and gallant officer, constituted [329] the front line of battle, to secure unity of action, during what was expected to be a surprise. General Bragg's troops were equally well disciplined as regiments, but were unused to marching by brigades, and many of his regiments had never before been under his orders. It was supposed that, in a broken and wooded country, they might very well follow and support General Hardee's lines, but might not do so well if deployed to form the immediate front. General Polk's command, recently organized, was even less prepared to occupy such a position. Breckinridge's division was composed of excellent material, and could march well, having lately retreated from Kentucky and middle Tennessee, with General Hardee's corps; hence, it was thought advisable, at first, to hold it in reserve for any emergency which might happen on any distant part of the field.
That the commands got very much broken and mixed up during the battle was not surprising, and was due less to the order of battle than to the rawness of the troops, including officers, the broken and wooded nature of the field, and the severity of the contest. General Beauregard is of opinion that any other order of battle would have resulted similarly, under like circumstances. The Federals were also in the same mixed — up condition, according to their own reports, when the battle had lasted only a few hours. At the close of the first battle of Manassas, the Confederates, who had fought on the defensive, in a single line of battle, owing to the want of troops, were nearly as badly disorganized as the army at Shiloh was. General Beauregard says that he has often seen new troops when attempting to manoeuvre, even on level ground, get so thoroughly mixed up in a few moments that a long time was required to disentangle them. It may be true that our reserves were engaged somewhat too early in the action; but this was done to save time, as success depended on the rapid execution of the offensive, and to prevent the enemy from reorganizing and concentrating for the defensive.
III.
Another objection raised against the attack at Shiloh is, that it was made to bear too much on the Federal left, which brought the Confederates in too close proximity to the Tennessee River, where their right flank became exposed to the fire of the enemy's two gunboats. [330]
The attack was made oblique on the right, as has been already stated in the narrative of the battle, in order to get on better ground, towards the ridge separating the waters which flow into Lick Creek from those which empty into Owl Creek. This arrangement enabled us, besides, to take the Federal encampments more in flank than would have been possible by a direct attack. The country was too much broken and too heavily wooded to justify much fear of the gunboats in the river. They could not have distinguished friends from foes, except at a short distance, and they would have had to fire at random. We expected to back the Federals against Owl and Snake Creeks—the two narrow and rickety bridges of which could not have stood heavy pressure— early in the day, without incurring much risk from the gunboats. It was only late on the afternoon of the 6th, when attacking Pittsburg Landing itself, that our right flank became really exposed to their fire, and our attack was checked, principally, by the water in the creeks and ravines which empty into the Tennessee River.
It must be remembered that the Confederates had no accurate knowledge of the ground occupied by the Federals, and they had no proper staff officers to make the necessary reconnoissances, if practicable. The expedition was intended to be a surprise, and they feared to arouse the suspicions of the enemy by a forced reconnoissance: hence, they preferred to take the risk attending an imperfect knowledge of the ground over which they had to operate, rather than incur the danger of giving timely warning of the attack to the enemy. War is usually a contest of chances, and he who fears to incur any risk seldom accomplishes great results.
It is possible that, if we had had an army of veterans and had possessed a thorough knowledge of the Federal positions, we might have attacked in a different manner. At any rate, we would have so extended our left as to engage Sherman's troops shortly after we attacked Prentiss's, which would have given the former less time to prepare for the onslaught. There is no doubt that, at early dawn, Sherman was no better prepared than Prentiss to receive an attack. But General Beauregard had been assured, while collecting information at Corinth for the movement, that the distance between Owl and Lick Creeks, near the Shiloh meeting-house, was about two miles, whereas it was more nearly three: hence our front was not sufficiently extended to attack, [331] in rapid succession, the whole Federal front, a circumstance which gave Sherman time hastily to form his division to oppose us; and on this fact he bases his denial of having been surprised by the Confederates.
IV.
Our narrative of the movement from Corinth to Shiloh has clearly established the surprise of the Federals on that occasion. When an army of nearly forty thousand men advances to within a mile and a half of an enemy's encampments; establishes lines of battle in the woods in his front, during a whole afternoon; bivouacs all night in that position without being disturbed, and the next morning advances at leisure, in line of battle, to within sight of those encampments, without meeting any serious opposition, it is absurd to deny that a surprise is effected; otherwise, there is evidently no attack in war that can be thus designated. If the attack was not a surprise, how can General Sherman account for the success achieved against Prentiss, in about one hour, and against himself in about two hours, by a force not well organized, badly armed, and worse equipped? He says, in his ‘Memoirs,’ p. 233, of the general position at Pittsburg Landing:
The ground itself admits of easy defence by a small command, and yet affords admirable camping ground for a hundred thousand men.
Again, on page 229:
We did not fortify our camps against an attack, because we had no orders to do so, and because such a course would have made our raw men timid. The position was naturally strong, with Snake Creek on our right, a deep, bold stream, with a confluent (Owl Creek) to our right front; and Lick Creek, with a similar confluent, on our left; thus narrowing the space over which we could be attacked to about a mile and a half or two miles.
In his report of the battle, he says of his own position near the Shiloh meeting-house:
The fire came from the bushes which line a small stream that rises in the field in front of Appler's camp, and flows to the north along my whole front. This valley afforded the enemy partial cover; but our men were so posted as to have a good fire at them as they crossed the valley and ascended the rising ground on our side.
In his testimony at the trial of Colonel Worthington, an officer of his command, in August, 1862, he said:
And here I mention, for future history, that our right flank was well [332] guarded by Owl and Snake Creeks, our left by Lick Creek, leaving us simply to guard our front. No stronger position was ever held by an army. . . . But even as we were on the 6th of April, you might search the world over and not find a more advantageous field of battle—flanks well protected, and never threatened, troops in easy support, timber and broken ground giving good points to rally; and the proof is that forty-three thousand men, of whom at least ten thousand ran away, held their ground against sixty thousand chosen troops2 of the South with their best leaders. On Friday the 4th, nor officer, nor soldier, not even Colonel Worthington, looked for an attack, as I can prove.
Now, what forces had he and General Prentiss with which to hold and defend their impregnable positions? Sherman had three of his brigades of infantry, three batteries of six pieces each, and some cavalry, and was reinforced by one brigade of McClernand's division, making in all over nine thousand men; and General Prentiss had three brigades of infantry and two batteries, or about six thousand men—together they had over fifteen thousand men.
Their positions were carried in from one to two hours by Hardee's corps of four brigades, numbering nine thousand and twentyfour infantry and artillery, assisted by Bragg's five brigades, ten thousand seven hundred and thirty-one infantry and artillery, and by two brigades of Polk's corps, about four thousand five hundred men, or, in all, less than twenty-five thousand. Polk's other two brigades and Breckinridge's division of three brigades took no part in this first attack. Is it probable that the Federals, who fought so gallantly during the rest of that day, would have been driven so soon from such a stronghold as is described by General Sherman, if they had not been surprised? But the reports of several of General Sherman's own brigade commanders show conclusively that the Confederate attack, on the morning of the 6th, came upon them quite unexpectedly. A remarkable circumstance is, that General Sherman had then no cavalry pickets in advance of his encampments, having forgotten, apparently, that cavalry is ‘the eye of an army.’ His infantry pickets and guards were so few and close to his first line of sentinels as not to be able to delay our advance, or give timely notice of our approach. General Sherman says also, in his report: [333]
On Saturday (5th) the enemy's cavalry was again very bold, coming well down to our front, yet I did not believe they designed anything but a strong demonstration.
And further on he adds:
About 8 A. M. (Sunday) I saw the glistening bayonets of heavy masses of infantry, to our left front, in the woods beyond the small stream alluded to, and became satisfied for the first time that the enemy designed a determined attack on our whole camp.
Major Ricker says that, after reporting to General Sherman a reconnoissance he had made on the day preceding the battle:
I told him I had met and fought the advance of Beauregard's army, and that he was advancing on us. General Sherman remarked, “It could not be possible; Beauregard was not such a fool as to leave his base of operations to attack us in ours—mere reconnoissance in force.” 3
But Generals Sherman and Prentiss were not the only commanding officers surprised by Beauregard's ‘foolish’ attack. Generals Halleck, Grant, and Buell seem to have been equally unprepared for his sudden onslaught. General Buell, with five divisions of his army, well organized and fully equipped, numbering at least thirty-seven thousand men of all arms, had left Nashville from the 15th to the 20th of March, to form a junction at his leisure with Grant at Savannah, via Columbia, Mount Pleasant, and Waynesboro. He was delayed several days at Columbia by high water in Duck River, the bridge having been destroyed by the Confederates. While there he first heard, on or about the 29th of March, that Grant's army had moved to Pittsburg Landing, on the left bank of the Tennessee River. General Buell resumed his march on the 31st, intending—having obtained the approval of General Halleck—‘to stop for cleaning up and rest at Waynesboro;’ he had not yet received any intimation that General Grant was in danger, or that he (Buell) should hurry up with his forces.
But in order that we may not be suspected of a disposition to be unfair towards the distinguished generals referred to, we quote from Van Horne's ‘History of the Army of the Cumberland,’ vol. i. pp. 102 et seq., as follows: [334]
General Buell had not yet4 received an intimation that General Grant was in any danger, or that there was need of haste in the movement of his army, and, desiring to have his forces in good shape to meet a comrade army, obtained permission from General Halleck to stop for rest at Waynesboro. The army commander had also under consideration the propriety of moving to Hamburg, above Pittsburg Landing, and thence to the place of conjunction. Stronger evidence could not be adduced than this project of stopping at Waynesboro, that neither General Halleck nor General Buell, at this time, thought that there was anything actual, probable, or possible, in the situation at Pittsburg Landing, to demand the hurried advance of the army of the Ohio. But General Nelson [commanding the leading division], ignorant of this proposal to halt at Waynesboro, and alive to the probability of an early attack upon General Grant, hurried through the place for rest and trimming up for a handsome introduction to the Army of the Tennessee, and, by sweeping impetuously on the road to Savannah, he both defeated the deflection towards Hamburg and the halt at Waynesboro; for before General Buell thought it necessary to give orders to Nelson, other divisions, to which the speed of the first had been communicated, were also beyond Waynesboro, and could not then be recalled.That General Grant felt secure at this time is equally manifest. Telegraphic communications between him and Nelson were established on the 3d of April. The latter telegraphed that he could be at Savannah with his division on the 5th. On the 4th, General Grant replied that he need not hasten his march, as transports to convey him to Pittsburg Landing would not be ready before the 8th. Nevertheless, Nelson hastened on, and it was well he did, for he gave motion to the whole army behind him, and General Johnston was even then on the march from Corinth, with his entire army, to crush General Grant before General Buell could give him assistance. . . .
A variety of facts support the assumption that neither General Halleck, General Grant, nor the division commanders on the field beyond Pittsburg Landing, had the remotest expectation that the enemy would advance in offence from Corinth with full strength. General Halleck proposed to command the united armies in their advance upon Corinth, and yet he was not to leave his headquarters at St. Louis, Missouri, until the 7th. On the 5th, General Sherman, though not the senior division commander, yet virtually so, from the confidence reposed in him by General Grant, telegraphed to the latter: “All is quiet along my lines now; the enemy has cavalry in our front, and I think there are two regiments and one battery six miles out.” 5 Again: “I have no doubt that nothing will occur to-day more than some picket firing. The enemy is saucy, but got the worst of it yesterday, and will not press our [335] pickets far. I will not be drawn out far, unless with a certainty of advantage, and I do not apprehend anything like an attack upon our position.”
General Grant telegraphed the same day as follows: “The main force of the enemy is at Corinth, with troops at different points east. . . . The number of men at Corinth, and within supporting distance of it, cannot be far from eighty thousand men. Some skirmishing took place between our outguards and the enemy's yesterday and the day before. . . . I have scarcely the faintest idea of an attack (general one) being made upon us, but will be prepared, should such a thing take place. . . . It is my present intention to send them (Buell's three foremost divisions) to Hamburg, some four miles above Pittsburg, when they all get here.” . . .
They [the Federal divisions at Pittsburg Landing] were widely separated, and did not sustain such relations to each other that it was possible to form quickly a connected defensive line. . . . They had no defences and no designated line for defence in the event of a sudden attack, and there was no general on the field to take, by special authority, the command of the whole force in an emergency.
While the national army was unprepared for battle and unexpectant of such an event, and was passing the night of the 5th in fancied security, Johnston's army of forty thousand men was in close proximity, and ready for the bloody revelation of its presence and purpose on the following morning. . . . Early on the morning of the 6th of April, a Sabbath day of unusual brightness, cannonading in the direction of Pittsburg Landing was distinctly heard at Savannah. General Grant supposed that it indicated an attack upon his most advanced positions, and, not waiting to meet General Buell, as he had appointed, and not leaving any instructions or suggestions for his guidance in moving his army to the field, or even expressing a desire that he should give him support, he gave an order to General Nelson to march his division up to Pittsburg Landing, and, taking a steamer, hastened towards the noise of battle. He did, however, advise General Buell, by note, that an attack had been made, whose occurrence he had not anticipated before Monday or Tuesday; apologized for not meeting him, as he had contemplated, and mentioned the fact that he had ordered General Nelson to move with his division “to opposite Pittsburg Landing.” The omission to request him to take any other divisions to the field, or even to hasten their march to Savannah, must be accepted as conclusive that General Grant did not at the time anticipate such a battle as would require the assistance of other portions of the Army of the Ohio. . . . He [General Buell] subsequently received a note from General Grant, addressed to the commanding officer, advanced forces, near Pittsburg, Tennessee, advising him that his forces had been engaged since early morning, contending against an army estimated at a hundred thousand men, and that the introduction of fresh troops upon the field would inspire his men and dishearten the enemy.
General Sherman's vain effort to show that he was ready for the Confederate attack on the morning of the 6th contradicts his [336] former statements. It certainly weakens in nothing the preponderance of evidence offered by us, nor does it, in any way, impair the force of what is said in Van Horne's ‘History of the Army of the Cumberland.’ The discussion of this point has made it clear that not only Sherman's division, but the entire Federal army, was taken by surprise. That General Sherman should deny it to-day, with such bitterness of feeling towards those who prefer the testimony of facts to his unsubstantiated assertions, seems the result of an after-thought, which involves him in inconsistency.
In Badeau's ‘Military History of U. S. Grant’ we read as follows:6
. . . On the 4th (April) the enemy felt Sherman's front in force, but nothing serious came of it, and the opinion of that commander was decided that no probability of an immediate engagement existed. Grant rode out on the day after (the 5th) to Sherman's lines, and concurred with him in this judgment. They were both mistaken, for the skirmish was the reconnoissance of the enemy, preliminary to the battle of Shiloh. This affair, however, awoke attention, and put both officers and men on the alert.
These are conflicting statements. How could ‘both officers and men’ be ‘on the alert’—that is to say, ready for an attack on that morning—when the commanding general himself did ‘not anticipate’ any such attack; and when he and General Sherman believed that no immediate engagement was likely to take place? Were ‘the officers and men’ of the Federal army better informed than their commanding generals? A few of them were, and even ventured to suggest their fears to some of their commanders, but they were rebuked for their presumption.
The Federal army could not have been ‘on the alert’ and ready, at that time, to meet the onset of the Confederate army, for the simple and additional reason that, when our troops swept into the enemy's encampments, most of the men off duty were found at their morning meal, some loitering about their regimental grounds, some lying in their tents, while others were busily attending to the nearly cooked bread which then filled their well-lit ovens. This utter absence of preparation, obvious to all the first assaulting Confederate columns, shows how secure the enemy thought himself, and how little generals, officers, and men dreamed of an attack on that day. [337]
General Grant was evidently much mistaken as to the number of the Confederates; but, in war, one is very apt to judge of the strength of an adversary by the severity of the blows he inflicts. If General Grant really believed that his enemy was as strong as his despatches of that period state, was he not at fault in having landed his army on the exposed side of a wide and deep river, when that enemy lay at so short a distance—only twenty-two miles? Was he not to blame for leaving his entire front unprotected by field-works, and for neglecting to throw out all the cavalry at his disposal, as far in his front and on his flanks as possible? But in his letter7 to General Halleck, sent from Savannah, April 5th, he said:
General Nelson's division has arrived. The other two of General Buell's column will arrive to-morrow or next day. It is my present intention to send them to Hamburg, some four or five miles above Pittsburg, when they all get here. From that point to Corinth the road is good, and a junction can be formed with the troops from Pittsburg at almost any point.
He proposed thus to violate two important maxims of war: first, by dividing his forces and isolating a part of them—with a broad and deep stream behind them, and a small one (Lick Creek) separating the two bodies from each other—at a still shorter distance than that which lay between Pittsburg Landing and the enemy at Corinth, supposed to be eighty thousand strong; secondly, by proposing to form the junction of his forces at a point even nearer to the enemy than Pittsburg Landing. In such a case the temptation to seize the opportunity for their separate destruction would have been too great for even a non-aggressive adversary to resist.
If General Grant had had time to carry out his intention, Generals Johnston and Beauregard—guarding well the crossings of Lick Creek, on its south side—would have concentrated all their available forces against General Buell's first three divisions, which would have been destroyed before they could have been reinforced, either by his other two divisions or by troops from Pittsburg Landing. Then the Confederate commanders would have attacked General Grant himself, with all the chances of success in their favor, especially if, meanwhile, Van Dorn could have joined them (as already instructed) with his forces from Arkansas. [338]
V.
General Beauregard is of opinion that General Sherman committed a grave error by protracting, as he did, the defence of the position he held at the Shiloh meeting-house. When, at 8 A. M., he ‘became satisfied, for the first time, that the enemy designed a determined attack on his whole camp’—knowing his unprepared condition to offer a long resistance—he should have ‘made a virtue of necessity,’ and, instead of calling on McClernand, in his rear, to come to his assistance, he should have ordered or requested him, Wallace, and Hurlbut, to select at once a strong defensive position near the former's camps (and there were many such), on which Prentiss and himself could retire at the proper moment. And when, at about 9 A. M., he ‘judged that Prentiss was falling back,’ which exposed the left flank of his own two remaining brigades to the concentrated attack of the Confederates, he should have retired, fighting, on the right of the defensive position occupied by the three divisions of McClernand, Wallace, and Hurlbut, behind which his and Prentiss's shattered troops could have rallied as a reserve, increased by his fourth brigade—Stewart's— which, on his first arrival at the Landing, he had imprudently detached, over two miles to his left rear, to guard a bridge across Lick Creek. That bridge might very well have been protected by a small force of cavalry and a section of artillery. The Federals would thus have presented a united front, in a strong position, as an effective barrier to the headlong and disjointed attacks of the Confederates, who would necessarily have been in some confusion from their march through the woods and across the ravines, and their assault on the first line of Federal encampments. As it was, in their pursuit of Sherman's and Prentiss's commands, they caught, ‘on the wing’ and in succession, the divisions of McClernand, Wallace, and Hurlbut, who offered a gallant but ineffectual resistance to the persistent and determined attacks of the elated Confederates.
This error of General Sherman is, however, one that is often committed in an active campaign. Two memorable examples occurred in the late Franco-Prussian war, which cost France, besides her high military renown, the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, and one billion of dollars.
On the 4th of August, 1870, three Prussian divisions, of the [339] Crown Prince's army, surprised and crushed, at Wissembourg, on the Sarre River, one division of McMahon's corps (the 1st) of thirty-six thousand men, which formed the right wing of the French army, composed of the élite of the French troops. Two days afterwards the Crown Prince attacked again, suddenly, the remainder of the French corps, at Woerth, a few miles back from Wissembourg. The other two corps, 5th and 7th of McMahon's army, were not quite within supporting distance, and instead of opposing his overpowering adversary in such a manner only as to give time to those two corps to concentrate on a good defensive position in his rear, he made a determined stand at Woerth, calling on them to hurry up to his assistance. Only two divisions of the 5th corps (De Failly's) reached him in time to take part in the desperate struggle then going on. But his gallant troops were nearly annihilated, and he was compelled to retire to the fortified and distant camp of Chalons, to recruit and reorganize another army, which was lost shortly afterwards at Sedan.
The left wing of the French army met with nearly the same fate. It consisted of five corps, scattered along the frontier in advance of Metz, all under the immediate direction of the French Emperor, Napoleon III., whose headquarters were established in that fortified city. Three Prussian corps, under General Von Steinmetz, suddenly appeared at Sarrebruck, on the Sarre River, which they crossed rapidly, and, on the 6th, surprised the 2d French corps (Frossard's) at Speicheren, where another desperate engagement ensued while awaiting the support of the other four French corps. These arrived, however, in the vicinity only in time to be caught ‘on the wing,’ and had to fall back in great haste towards Metz—in a divergent direction from McMahon's line of retreat—where they were finally surrounded, and compelled to surrender, with Marshal Bazaine, October 29th, 1870, after an heroic but useless defense, so far as regarded the safety of France.
General Beauregard is of opinion that, had the Confederates been in better fighting condition, the corresponding error of Sherman would have ended the battle of Shiloh long before Buell could have come to the assistance of the Federals, and a decisive victory would then have enabled the Confederates to take the offensive in middle Tennessee and Kentucky, with far greater results than those obtained, at first, by General Bragg, a few months later. [340]
VI.
The blame for having withdrawn the Confederate troops too soon from the fight, on the evening of the 6th, ‘just as’—it is alleged—‘a last concentrated effort was about to be made by some of the subordinate commanders,’ has, we think, been conclusively refuted in the narrative of the battle. That charge is entirely disproved by the reports of brigade and regimental commanders. The cessation of hostilities was not ordered until ‘a last concentrated effort’ had been made shortly after 4 P. M., under General Beauregard's own eyes, and not until he was satisfied, from the condition of his troops, that no further attack on our part would meet with success, especially after the opening of Webster's reserved Federal batteries, supported by reinforcements, as the rolls of infantry fire clearly indicated. It was not until then, about 6 P. M., shortly before sunset, that the order was given to cease the contest, and collect and reorganize the various commands, before it should be too dark to carry out the order effectually. But before these instructions could be generally distributed, the fighting had, in reality, ceased on the greater part of the field. As an additional proof that the order was not given too soon, it is a positive fact that the brigades and divisions of the different commands, especially Bragg's and Hardee's, were not collected and reorganized in time to meet the Federal attack, on the next morning. The true reason, besides the rawness of our officers and men, why we were not able to complete our victory on the 6th, is correctly given, by the Adjutant-General of the Confederate army at Shiloh, in his ‘Campaigns of Lieutenant-General Forrest,’ p. 151, as follows:
After the combat was at its height, about meridian, those superior officers who should have been occupied with the concentration and continuous projection of their troops in heavy masses upon the shattered Federal divisions, were at the very front and “perilous edge” of the battle, leading forward regiments, perchance brigades, into action, with great individual intrepidity, and doing a great deal, no doubt, by their personal example, to impel small bodies forward. But, meanwhile, to their rear were left the masses of their respective commands, without direction, and thus precious time was lost. The Confederates were not kept continuously massed and employed, either in corps or divisions; mere piecemeal onsets were the general method of fighting after 12 o'clock (on the 6th), with this consequence: Sherman was enabled to make several obstinate, powerful stands, by which he protracted the battle [341] some hours. Had the corps been held well in hand, massed and pressed continuously upon the tottering, demoralized foe; had general officers attended to the swing and direction of the great “war-engine” at their disposition, rather than, as it were, becoming “so many heads or battering-rams of that machine,” the battle assuredly would have closed at latest by mid-day. By that hour, at most, the whole Federal force might have been urged back and penned up, utterly helpless, in the angle formed between the river and Lick (or Snake) Creek, or dispersed along the river bank, between the two creeks; we repeat, that had the Confederate corps been kept in continuity, closely pressed en masse upon the enemy, after the front line had been broken and swept back, the Federal fragments must have been kept in a downward movement, like the loose stones in the bed of a mountain torrent.
Before leaving this part of our subject it is proper, we think, to direct attention to the comparison, drawn by Mr. Davis, between General Albert Sidney Johnston and Marshal Turenne, with reference to the battle of Shiloh. Says Mr. Davis:8
To take an example far from us, in time and place, when Turenne had, after months of successful manoeuvring, finally forced his enemy into a position which gave assurance of victory, and had marshalled his forces for a decisive battle, he was, when making a preliminary reconnoissance, killed by a chance shot; then his successor, instead of attacking, retreated, and all which the one had gained for France the other lost.
The falsity of the comparison is too flagrant to need more than a passing notice. First, it was at the suggestion of General Beauregard that General Johnston had marched his small army to Corinth, in order to form a junction there, and fight the battle of Shiloh, not ‘after months of successful manoeuvring,’ as was the case with Marshal Turenne, but, on the contrary, after months of irreparable disasters, which had brought the country to the brink of despair, and led General Johnston to believe that he had lost the confidence of both the people and the army. Second, it was General Beauregard—not General Johnston—who ‘had marshalled our forces for a decisive battle’ at Pittsburg Landing, as has been already fully and clearly established. Third, when the commanding general fell, the battle had been in progress fully eight hours. His ‘successor’ continued the attack, with all the vigor and energy possible, as long as daylight and the physical condition of his men allowed him to do so. He renewed the attack the next day; and only began his masterly retreat because the enemy in his front had been reinforced with overwhelming numbers. Fourth, the victory [342] was by no means assured at the hour of General Johnston's death. All that can be said is, that our right was then in the act of driving back the enemy's left; but there still remained his right and centre, which, though hard pressed, had not yet been routed, and only began to give way in confusion after General Beauregard had assumed command. ‘It was after 6 P. M.’ he says, ‘when the enemy's last position was carried, and his force finally broke and sought refuge behind a commanding eminence covering Pittsburg Landing.’9
To a careless or superficial reader, this comparison, coming from such a source, might have a certain weight, but when sifted and closely analyzed, it is seen to be the far-fetched and idle fancy of prejudice.
VII.
General Beauregard says that the hardest fighting the Confederates encountered on the 7th was with Buell's splendidly organized and well-disciplined divisions, numbering at least twenty thousand10 before the arrival of Wood's two brigades in the afternoon of that day. According to Sherman's ‘Memoirs,’11 General Grant's own forces, on the 7th, amounted to nearly twenty-five thousand men (including Lew. Wallace's division of fresh troops), but they did not fight with the animation and spirit of the preceding day. Until about 10.30 A. M., General Beauregard had, in the centre and on the right, as stated in the narrative of the battle, only about ten thousand infantry and artillery, under Generals Breckinridge and Hardee, to oppose Buell's three fresh divisions, supported by a part of General Grant's forces of the preceding day, under Hurlbut, while General Bragg had only about seven thousand five hundred infantry and artillery, on the left, with which to oppose General Grant's force of more than twenty thousand men. By 11.30 A. M., General Beauregard had withdrawn from General Bragg two brigades and a regiment, to reinforce the centre and right, and he had made him extend another brigade (Russell's) to his right, to cover the space between him and Breckinridge, left open by the unfortunate absence of Cheatham's division, of General Polk's corps. General Bragg had, therefore, at that time (11.30 A. M.), [343] only about five thousand men with whom to confront General Grant's forces, and he was reinforced during the day by only two straggling regiments under General J. K. Jackson, and by a small disjointed brigade under Colonel Pond, at about 1 P. M. With those forces General Bragg not only held at bay those opposed to him, but took the offensive several times, and, on the arrival of Cheatham's division in its proper place, compelled Wallace, Sherman, and McClernand to call earnestly on McCook, of Buell's army, for support. General Beauregard, therefore, felt not much concerned about his left; and he directed all his attention and most of his available troops to holding in check or driving back, at times, Buell's forces, which showed considerable boldness, and seemed to be well handled.
The result of that day's battle shows conclusively what would have been the consequences had General Grant carried out his intention—according to a statement to that effect in General Sherman's ‘Memoirs’—of attacking the Confederates on the morning of the 7th, without awaiting the assistance of General Buell's forces. His disaster would undoubtedly have been irreparable.
With regard to the claim of victory raised by both sides, after the battle of Shiloh, it is thus clearly and, we believe, fairly stated by General Jordan:12
The Confederates found their pretension upon the facts of the heavy captures of men, artillery, and colors which they carried from the field, the complete rout inflicted on the Federals on Sunday, and their ability, on Monday, to hold the ground upon which they had concentrated and made the battle until 2 P. M.,13 when General Beauregard withdrew from an unprofitable combat —withdrew in admitted good order, taking with him all the captured guns for which there was transportation. Moreover, his enemy was left so completely battered and stunned as to be unable to pursue. The Federals claimed the victory upon the grounds that, on Monday evening, they had recovered their encampments and possession of the field of battle, from which the Confederates had retired, leaving behind their dead and a number of wounded. In this discussion it should be remembered that after the Confederates concentrated on Monday, or from at least as late as 9 A. M. up to the time of their retreat, they uniformly took the offensive and were the assailants. All substantially claimed in reports of Federal subordinate generals is that, after having been worsted between 9 A. M. and 2 P. M., they were then able to hold [344] their own and check their antagonists.14 After that, manifestly; there was a complete lull in the battle until about 4 P. M., when, and no sooner, do the Federals appear to have advanced.General Beauregard has been blamed, unjustly, for withdrawing his troops just as they were being launched, on Sunday evening, against the last Federal position, with such numbers and impetus, by generals on the spot, as must have insured complete success. The reports of brigade and regimental commanders entirely disprove this allegation.15 His order, really, was not distributed before the greater part of the Confederate troops had already given up the attempt, for that day, to carry the ridge at the Landing.
For further particulars as to the hour when General Beauregard's order to cease firing was given and received, we refer the reader to the Appendices to the present and the two preceding chapters.
VIII.
When error and falsehood have taken hold of public credulity, their eradication is an arduous and unpleasant task. The experience of life teaches this lesson to most men. And it often happens that even the fair-minded are slow to discard a conviction which has grown upon them and is strengthened by the assertions of those who are, or have been, high in authority. There seems to be a fatal attraction about the propagation of evil reports, which the preponderance of truth itself but tardily counterbalances and destroys. ‘Listeners,’ says Hare, ‘do seldom refrain from evil hearing.’
This applies to the unaccountable and malicious story, to which additional notoriety has recently been given, that General Beauregard, during the first day of the battle of Shiloh, up to the time when he was informed of General Johnston's death, was lying in his ambulance, taking no part whatever in the fight, and, that even after the fall of the commanding general, he ‘quietly remained where he was, waiting the issue of events.’
To listen to such a statement, and see credence given to it, must have been pleasing to those—fortunately few in number—whose object has always been to misrepresent General Beauregard, to ignore his merit as a commander, and rob him of the renown he acquired despite their jealous efforts. [345]
On page 67 of the second volume of Mr. Davis's ‘Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,’ the following passage will be found:
General Beauregard had told General Johnston that morning, as he rode off, that if it should be necessary to communicate with him or for him to do anything, he would be found in his ambulance in bed. Governor Harris, knowing this, and how feeble General Beauregard's health was, went first to his headquarters, just in the rear of where the army had deployed into line the evening before. Beauregard and his staff were gone on horseback in the direction of Shiloh church. He found them there. The Governor told General Beauregard that General Johnston had been killed. Beauregard expressed regret, and then remarked, “ Everything else seems to be going on well on the right.” Governor Harris assented. “Then,” said Beauregard, “the battle may as well go on.” The Governor replied that he certainly thought it ought. He offered his services to Beauregard, and they were courteously accepted. General Beauregard then remained where he was, waiting the issue of events.
It is to be regretted, on Mr. Davis's own account, that he has given to the world as history so baseless a fiction.
A passage similar to this appears in Colonel W. P. Johnston's ‘Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston,’ but it had been determined, after due reflection, to pass it by in silence in this work. General Beauregard, it was thought, could afford to overlook a charge so palpably absurd. But Mr. Davis having thought proper to reproduce the statement, with the evident purpose of giving it the additional weight of his name and authority, we now feel impelled, though reluctantly, to refute the statement and set the matter finally at rest.
That General Beauregard's health was not good at the time of the battle is an admitted fact; but that, nevertheless, he displayed the most untiring activity and energy, and, within less than two months after his arrival in the West, mastered the minutest details of the military situation, and changed its whole aspect, by inspiring new hope and confidence in the public mind, then so much depressed, is no less certain, and has been proved beyond dispute, by the facts and documents already given to the reader in the preceding chapters.
With the clear perception resulting from his remarkable strategic powers, his ill-health had not prevented him from advising and effecting the evacuation of Columbus, until then erroneously considered the ‘Gibraltar of the West;’ fortifying and [346] strengthening Fort Pillow, New Madrid Bend, and Island No.10; urging General Johnston to abandon his retreat towards Stevenson, and march to Decatur, so as to facilitate a junction of the two armies; and, finally, despatching most of his staff, with special messages, to the governors of four States, and to Generals Van Dorn, Bragg, and Lovell, in one earnest and almost desperate effort to obtain and concentrate an army of about forty thousand men at or near Corinth, and thus prepare the way for the great battle which was fought on the 6th and 7th of April.
Nor had his ill-health prevented him from organizing and disciplining, as well as could be done, the heterogeneous army he had thus collected, to the concentration of which the government had merely given a silent, not to say unwilling, assent. For the reader must not forget that General Beauregard's letter to General Cooper, dated February 23d,16 detailing his course as to the temporary enlistment of State troops, had met with no response; and that, to his question addressed to General Johnston as to whether the War Department sanctioned his action in the matter, the answer, dated February 26th, was: ‘Government neither sanctioned nor disapproved.’17
The War Department had adopted the same irresponsible policy with regard to the troops at Pensacola, asked for by General Beauregard of General Bragg; the bald truth of the matter being, that General Bragg, having referred General Beauregard's call upon him to the government at Richmond, was left to his own discretion as to his compliance with it. He was never ordered at all, despite Mr. Davis's assertions to that effect;18 but came of his own accord, thereby assuming the full responsibility of the movement. That the government did not prevent the transfer demanded is all that can be claimed for it.
Not only had General Beauregard suggested and brought about the concentration of our forces at Corinth, but, after declining the command-in-chief, which was offered him by General Johnston, he had also, at the request of the latter, drawn up the General Orders, the seventh clause of which read as follows: ‘All general orders touching matters of organization, discipline, and [347] conduct of the troops, published by General G. T. Beauregard to the Army of the Mississippi, will continue in force in the whole army until otherwise directed, and copies thereof will be furnished to the 3d Army Corps and the reserve.’19
When, at the suggestion of General Beauregard, it was determined that we should advance on the 3d of April, to strike the enemy at Pittsburg Landing, it was he again who, despite his illhealth, prepared and delivered to the Adjutant-General of our united forces all the notes from which was written General Order No. 8, directing and regulating the march of the army from Corinth, and the order in which the enemy should be attacked.
General Beauregard left Corinth with the army, and reached, simultaneously with General Johnston, the ground whereon was formed the Confederate line of battle. He was then on horseback, as was General Johnston himself.
To bring before the reader some of the incidents which occurred on the afternoon of the 5th, the following passage is taken from Major Waddell's statement of facts relative to the battle of Shiloh:20
In corroboration of this we now give an extract from Colonel Jacob Thompson's report of the battle. Colonel Thompson was also one of General Beauregard's volunteer aids.21
These are high testimonials of the estimation in which General Beauregard was held by the corps commanders and by General Johnston himself. They illustrate and explain the power and influence he exercised over the troops. Neither officers nor men, to whom his very presence was encouragement and comfort, supposed, for an instant, as he rode slowly down their lines, that he was of too feeble health to lead them on to victory the next day.
In the hurry and absorption of the occasion, General Beauregard had not given orders for the establishment of his night quarters: he therefore slept in his ambulance. Then—that is to say, between eleven o'clock P. M., on the 5th of April, and half-past 4 o'clock A. M., on the 6th—had any officer of General Johnston's staff been sent to General Beauregard, the latter would have been found ‘in his ambulance in bed;’ then, but only then; for, ‘the next morning, about dawn of day,’ according to a statement prepared by General Bragg for Colonel W. P. Johnston's book, General Beauregard was present ‘at the camp-fire of the general in chief.’23 He had arrived there on horseback. From the time [349] when he left his ambulance that morning he did not see it again until his return to Corinth, after the battle of Shiloh.
In support of this statement the reader is referred to General Beauregard's letter to Governor Harris, dated March 9th, 1880, written after the appearance of Colonel W. P. Johnston's book.24 The following is an extract from that letter:
You will observe this text imputes to you a knowledge, and also implies that it is upon your authority, that Colonel W. P. Johnston asserts my having said that I would be found in bed in my ambulance; whereas the fact is, that I had ridden with General Johnston from Monterey, on the preceding day, to the field. I only slept in my ambulance that night, as I had no tent, and did not see it again until my return to Corinth. I was again on horseback shortly after daybreak on the 6th—earlier, for that matter, than General Johnston, whom I found at his headquarters taking his coffee. We parted in advance of his headquarters, when he went to the front, with the understanding that I was to follow the movements of the field and direct the reserves; in which connection I call your attention to Colonel Jacob Thompson's statement, at page 570 of W. P. Johnston's book: “General Johnston determined to lead the attack in person, and leave General Beauregard to direct the movements of troops in the rear.” I may add, that I was on horseback all that day, with very few intervals, until you rejoined me at my headquarters, near Shiloh meeting-house, about sundown, after my return from the front; and I was again on horseback all the next day from about seven o'clock, with few intervals, until my arrival at Corinth, late that night.
This is clear and unambiguous. It utterly disproves and reduces to naught the groundless story chronicled by Mr. Davis.
In reply to that letter (April 13th, 1880) Governor Harris wrote:
. . . But my recollection is, and I have so stated upon several occasions, that the last words you spoke to General Johnston, as he was starting to the front on Sunday morning of the battle of Shiloh, were, “General, if you wish to communicate with me, send to my ambulance,” etc.25
Here the words ‘in bed’ are entirely omitted. They are in Colonel Johnston's and Mr. Davis's books, but not in Governor Harris's letter to General Beauregard. We know that Governor Harris is sincere in his belief that these were General Beauregard's words, but his impression about them, however strong it may be, is none the less erroneous. Where that ambulance was, or would be a few hours later, General Beauregard knew no more than [350] Governor Harris, or any other member of General Johnston's staff: how, then, could he have directed any one to it? This, however, is of small importance. Whatever may be the recollection of Governor Harris, and even admitting its correctness, it still remains an incontrovertible fact that no one saw, or professed to have seen, General Beauregard in his ambulance on either day of the battle; for the very simple reason that he was not near it himself, and hardly knew what had become of it.
As early as half-past 6 o'clock A. M., on the 6th, he was busily engaged issuing orders, first, to General Breckinridge, then to General Polk, then to General Bragg; and at twenty minutes after nine, when the last reserves passed Headquarters No. 1, where he had been left by General Johnston, he again mounted his horse and followed them to the front, where he remained as long as the battle raged, devoting his whole energy to the movements of our left and centre, while General Johnston was directing the attack on our right. This is conclusively established by the report of General Beauregard himself, and by those of Colonels Thompson, Augustin, Brent, Major Waddell, and Captains Ferguson, Chisolm, and Smith, who were General Beauregard's aids, or acting aids, at the time.26
Reverting now to what Mr. Davis insinuates was General Beauregard's attitude when informed of General Johnston's death, we have only to say, that the very source whence Colonel Johnston and Mr. Davis seem to have derived their information—namely, Governor Harris, in his letter of April 13th, 1880, already referred to—in nowise confirms what is said to have been his language on that occasion. Questioned by General Beauregard to that effect, he says:
I reported to you the death of General Johnston, when you expressed regret, inquired as to the circumstances under which he fell, and inquired also of me if the battle was going on well on the right. I answered, it was; when you said, “We will push on the attack,” or “continue to press forward;” the exact words employed I cannot with confidence repeat; but this is the substance and meaning of what was said.
Mr. Davis's account of the matter would lead the public to believe that General Beauregard was indifferent as to whether the battle should continue or not; nay, more, that he would have ordered [351] a cessation of hostilities had not Governor Harris suggested that the fight had better go on. Who could give credence to this, even if Governor Harris had not given the counter-statement already submitted to the reader? But Mr. Davis reaches the culminating-point when, speaking through Colonel Johnston's book, he describes General Beauregard as a sickly, broken-down, indifferent commander, who was disposed to trust to chance for a favorable turn of events, and who listlessly remained where he was, unable, if not unwilling, to take the helm and conduct the movements of the army.
This is trifling with public credulity. Mr. Davis certainly trusts too presumptuously to the consideration accorded to him on account of his former high position.
The entire country knows that General Beauregard, the trained soldier, is a man of quick temperament, who, without being rash, has never flinched under responsibility; that the salient traits of his character are boldness and energy. To assert that such a man remained quiet and inactive, when the chief command of the army devolved upon him—when the boom of the cannon was in his ear, and the clash and fury of the battle were around him; when news from the right told that victory on that part of the line was almost within our grasp—is to put too great a strain upon the credulity of even the simple. Words are not necessary to refute this slander, or to establish the fact that General Beauregard acted, under the circumstances, as his education, his nature, his duty, and his will prompted him. The preceding chapters have sufficiently shown the difficult and masterly work he accomplished, after the sad event which left in his hands the command of the army. Here, again, truth forces the statement that Mr. Davis, in his effort to detract from the merits of one against whom he has not scrupled to exhibit his persistent animosity, has overreached his aim, and, far from accomplishing his purpose, has only succeeded in impairing the historical value of his own book.
