Shiloh remains one of the best preserved of American Civil War battlefields. It is also one of the most important, too, for it was here that America – North and South – got a true look at what the human cost of war would actually entail. The two-day battle here – 6-7 April 1862 – proved the costliest in terms of casualties in American history to that date – almost 27,000 casualties for both sides including the life of the Confederate commander General Albert Sidney Johnston – the highest-ranking soldier killed during the entire war.

The carnage from this battle shocked both sides and demonstrated that the war would probably not be decided by one thunder stroke on the battlefield but would persist with much more bloodshed. In fact, eight battles – and innumerable smaller ones – that were larger and bloodier in scope during the three long years lay ahead.

THE BATTLEFIELD

Shiloh became one of the first five Civil War battlegrounds preserved back in the 1890’s – it was the third created after Chickamauga and Antietam. Like at Chickamauga and Gettysburg, many of the battlefields became purchased by the Federal government. Small amounts of land have added over time, especially from purchases made by the private Civil War Trust. Also like on the other two battlefields, Shiloh is another granite forest. Many Federal regiments have left monuments memorializing their actions here. A few Confederate monuments exist, but as at most American Civil War sites, the story remains told predominantly – at least as monuments go – through the lens of the victor.

Tablets dot the field, however, noting the whereabouts and actions of both sides giving a fuller picture. This was considered the main battle for units of the Army of the Mississippi – commanded by Ulysses S. Grant – and so they wanted to be remembered for their service here. Many of these units went on to serve under Grant during the victorious Vicksburg campaign of the following year with more of their monuments found there.

Chickamauga was the major battle for most of Don Carlos Buell’s army of the Ohio – which would become the Army of the Cumberland. You will find their monuments both here at Shiloh and in the forests and fields of Chickamauga in northern Georgia just a few miles south of Chattanooga.

A PARK VISIT

Introduction

Like most Civil War battlefields, a little pre-visit study is invaluable; otherwise, it is just a bunch of monuments and markers along a road. The battle took place over grounds that cover many square miles, pushing in one direction on one day and the other in the next. The monuments get a bit mixed up, as a result. The Trailhead Graphics topographical map is a must, especially as many of the monuments and markers are not found right along the park roads but are lost in fields and woods.

The best comprehensive book covering the battle is Timothy Smith’s Shiloh: Conquer or Perish.  There is a Blue Grey Magazine special issue on Shiloh also providing a decent overview – check on Amazon or eBay for old issues.  As well, a Staff Ride in the U.S. Army War College Guides to the Civil War is available providing excellent way to follow the battle on the ground.  The American Battlefield Trust battlefields.org website lets you download the NPS Tour Map; provides you with an animated map of the battle and includes a Battle App for download, as well.  There is also a two-hour online tour of the Park where you follow along with Dr. Smith along the Park’s auto tour route.

There is little in the way of amenities at or around the park. To stay nearby, the closest big group of rooms and restaurants are found in either Savannah, Tennessee or Corinth, Mississippi – both about 20 miles away. A nice alternative is to stay at the Tennessee State Park Resort at Pickwick Landing upriver about 10 miles away. Bring along water and pack a picnic lunch. The battlefield is much the way it was in 1862 – except for the monuments. Come in spring or fall to avoid the humid heat of summer and proliferation of bugs and snakes. The underbrush is also at a minimum.

Signs and Symbols

Shiloh might encompass one of the more complex battlefields for the casual visitor to understand and visit.  If you follow the National Park Service auto route, you pass by most of the main sites of the battles though not in a chronological order.  To go beyond first glances, you need to dismount from your vehicle and take to foot. 

A big problem you encounter is the growth of vegetation on the battlefield since the battle.  In 1862, trees were not so big – along the river, they were absent, chopped down to provide wood for steamboat boilers.  Undergrowth was also much less with domestic animals foraging unfettered by fences.

At the time of the battle, there were no good maps of the area.  Plus, there was only the one Corinth road at the time.  Other “mud roads” existed built by quartermasters trying to keep the various Federal camps supplied from the steamboat landing at Pittsburg. 

DAYS, ARMIES AND CAMPS

The important thing to remember was the battle took place over two days – 6-7 April 1862 – something the Park Service helps better explain by differentiating the different days by the shape of the tablets explaining the various points of action during the battle.  

Small rectangular-shaped tablets reveal the first day battles; oval-shaped markers let you know the actions happened on the second.  Large rectangular signs set the stage for the battles providing information about the units previously to the battle. 

Tablets lettered in blue refer to the Army of the Tennessee under the command of Major General Ulysses Grant; in red, you have actions taken by the Confederate Army of Mississippi while in yellow, these are the troops of the Federal Army of the Ohio led by Major General Don Carlos Buell.  The lettering on the signs faces you in the same direction as the troops in question faced.

Building Blocks

Regiments were the main building block of the armies, the level most soldiers fought at.  Regiments made up brigades who made up divisions, then corps and armies.  For major American Civil War battles it makes most sense to me to follow on a brigade level.  Divisions often broke up into parts, fighting at several different places on the battlefield.  Brigades could split up too, but most times they fought together.  While brigades make the study of the battle a little easier, regiments remain the units remembered by the monuments.

DAY ONE – STOP ONE

From the Visitor Center head back the way you came in on Pittsburg Landing Road and turn left at the first intersection – Confederate Road.  This road goes past several important side roads and monuments which we will get back to.  The road goes left at a junction with Sherman Road.  Continue past the intersection with the Hamburg-Purdy Road south past Shiloh Church.  Bear right past Peabody Road as the road becomes the Reconnoitering Road.  Follow this to the little parking area near Seay Field.  Dismount and check out the park tablets.

CONTACT MADE

Increased contacts with Confederates in the area outside of the Federal camps arrayed between Pittsburg Landing and Shiloh Church had some Union commanders on edge and others not so much.  Sherman and Prentiss – as well as Grant – came in for post-battle criticism on the lack of field entrenchments in front of their camps.  They stated it more important to use the short time they were waiting for Buell to further hone the drill skills of their men for the soon-to-come advance on Corinth.

Colonel Everett Peabody was a Harvard graduate who came out west to St Joseph, Missouri to work in the railroad industry.  With the onset of war, he helped raise the 13^th Missouri Infantry becoming the regiment’s colonel.  They were part of a Federal force that was forced to surrender at the Battle of Lexington – September 1861 – when the 3,500 Federals were overwhelmed by Sterling Price’s 15,000. 

Peabody figured among the Union wounded hit twice during the fighting and taken prisoner along with everyone else. A new 13^th Missouri was raised while he was away.  Eventually, Peabody gained an exchange in December 1861. He rebuilt his lost regiment now as the 25^th Missouri.  The new regiment joined Brigadier General Benjamin Prentiss’ division in March 1862 at Pittsburgh Landing where Prentiss made Peabody the commander of his first brigade.  His command consisted of the 12^th Michigan, the 16^th Wisconsin, the 21^st Missouri and his 25^th Missouri.  Only his regiment had seen action before Shiloh.

PEABODY’S SCOUTS GIVE WARNING

The divisions of Prentiss and Sherman set up occupying the most forward positions on the battlefields – the other divisions were scattered back into the rear towards Pittsburgh Landing.  Union pickets noted increased activity in the woods in front of their positions during the night of 5 April but both division commanders dismissed the reports.  Peabody did not, however, and sending out a patrol from the 25^th Missouri and 12^th Michigan under the command of Major James Edwin Powell.  The patrol ran promptly into the oncoming mass of Confederate ranks and the Battle of Shiloh was on. 

Division commander Prentiss became initially upset the patrol had gone out without his knowledge.  From one eyewitness – Charles Morton, “Shortly General Prentiss came riding rapidly down the line to our Colonel, jerked up his horse, and with great earnestness, if not great anger, exclaimed: “Colonel Peabody, I will hold you personally responsible for bringing on this engagement.” The Colonel, with severe dignity and illy concealed contempt, answered in his clear, strong voice: “General Prentiss, I am personally responsible for all my official acts.” Prentiss quickly realized Peabody’s men managed to give a warning to Prentiss and the rest of Grant’s army.

DAY ONE – STOP TWO

Continue back in the car and drive on the Reconnoitering Road northeast to the large mortuary monument erected in memory of Colonel Peabody.

The initial contact between Powell’s reconnoitering party made of men taken from the 25^th Missouri and 12^th Michigan lasted for about an hour from 0500 skirmishing with men of the 3^rd Mississippi Battalion led by Major Aaron Hardcastle.  But behind the Confederate skirmishers marched the 9,000-man strong corps of James Hardee. 

INITIAL COSTS OF FINDING THE ENEMY

The regiments of Peabody’s brigade had a very hard time of it in their first fight facing first against the Confederate brigade of S.A.M. Wood.  Both the commander and his successor at the 16^th Wisconsin went down wounded; Colonel Benjamin Allen would resign from the army because of his wounds while Colonel Cassiair Fairchild would eventually die from his in 1868.  Major Powell would also die later that day serving with the 25^th Missouri along the Sunken Road.  He lies in an unmarked grave supposedly at the Veterans Cemetery. 

Colonel David Moore leading the 25^th Missouri was shot three times, losing his right leg below the knee.  He would be back with his regiment at the Battles of Iuka and Corinth in October 1862, however. 

Peabody suffered three wounds himself in the early going. Then, rallying his men, he died killed him instantly when hit in the face by a shell.   The Peabody monument marks the spot where he died.  Buried on the battlefield, his remains later exhumed and moved to his native Massachusetts.  With Peabody’s death and the brigade becoming flanked by ever increasing Confederate numbers, the brigade fell apart opening the Federal center and leading to the fall of Sherman’s neighboring division on the right. 

There are no individual regimental monuments remembering the actions of the brigade.  Each of the regiments is noted on their respective State monuments: Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin.  Only the mortuary monument for Peabody exists to remind the casual visitor of the actions of the brigade.

DAY ONE – STOP THREE

Continue back in the car and turn right onto Peabody Road, drive for about a quarter mile to the intersection with the East Corinth Road.  Here, turn left and drive to the mortuary monument for Brigadier General Adley Gladden on the west edge of Spain Field.  The same series of assaults overrunning Peabody’s brigade were at work here against Prentiss’ other frontline brigade.

MILLER’S FIGHT

Madison Miller was another Missouri railroad man.  He organized the 1^st Missouri Light Artillery and became the commanding officer at the beginning of the war.  After distinguishing himself at the Federal defeat at Wilson’s Creek – August 1861 – he went on to become the colonel of the 18^th Missouri Infantry in February 1962 after the original commander, W. James Morgan, suffered relief of command for shooting Confederate prisoners out of hand. The 18^th Missouri was originally known as Morgan’s Rangers.

Given command of the second brigade of Prentiss’ division, his brigade took the field on the south side of Spain Field early on the morning of 6 April.  Attacked there by Confederates of Brigadier General Adley Gladden’s brigade, the men held out giving as much as they took, but more Confederate brigades came onto the scene eventually flanking Miller’s men and the brigade dissolved around 9:30 am.  Some of the men would find their way into the fighting at the Hornet’s Nest along the Sunken Road directly under Prentiss later during the day and it was here that Miller would fall prisoner – along with Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Pratt who was leading the 18^th Missouri – along with his division commander.

Exchanged later, Miller would briefly command a brigade again receiving a brevet promotion to brigadier general of U.S. volunteers for his service at Shiloh.  He returned to the railroads after the war, as well as real estate.

BRIGADE MONUMENTS

Here on the north edge of Spain Field – a position that the brigade slowly retreated toward – you find the monument of the 61^st Illinois – the 18^th Missouri and 18^th Wisconsin noted on their respective State monuments.  Colonel James Alban fell leading the 18^th Wisconsin.  His successor, Gabriel Bouck, would lead the 18^th Wisconsin on through battles at Corinth, Vicksburg and at Missionary Ridge before resigning early in 1864.  He eventually became a two-term congressman from Wisconsin starting in 1876. 

The 61^st Illinois remained the only regiment to maintain its integrity following the early morning and would represent a good portion of the 500 or so men under Prentiss’ command at the Hornet’s Nest – augmented later by another 575 men of the 23^rd Missouri.  Miller had another regiment, the 15^th Michigan, which arrived early on the morning of 6 April, but they showed up with no ammunition, only bayonets so Miller sent them back to the Landing.

ADLEY GLADDEN

Adley Gladden started as a major in the Palmetto Regiment of South Carolina volunteers during the Mexican War.  After the battle of Churubusco, promoted to lieutenant colonel, he led the regiment in fighting at the Belen Gate in Mexico City where he fell wounded.

With the onset of the Civil War, Gladden became colonel of the 1^st Louisiana Infantry.  The regiment became assigned to Braxton Bragg’s command at Pensacola, Florida.  Recognizing Gladden’s competence as a military leader, Bragg commended the now brigadier general to take command of a brigade of four Alabama regiments in addition to the 1^st Louisiana.

Gladden led his men from the front as they entered Spain Field against the Federals of Miller.  Early in the action, a piece of shrapnel blasted his left shoulder almost taking his arm off.  An aide described the arm as “crushed into a mass of bones and flesh.”  Gladden replied as he was helped into an ambulance, “I am afraid it is a serious hurt.”  The arm later amputated but Gladden died anyway a few days later back in Corinth.

DAY ONE – STOP FOUR

Back in the car, retrace the steps back past the Peabody Monument to Rhea Field, another quarter mile to the northwest.  Now we are in the area of Sherman’s division.  Sherman had four brigades, though one – under command of Colonel David Stuart – he assigned to an area independent of the main division far to the extreme left of the Federal line above Lick Creek.  The other brigades laid out east to west were those of Hildebrand, Buckland and McDowell.

Jesse Hildebrand commanding the all-Ohio 3^rd brigade on the left.  The regiment farthest in front, the 53^rd Ohio camped in Rea Field.  Commanding officer Colonel Jesse Appler sent word to Sherman that he had to get his regiment in line of battle because of the activity on his front early in the morning of 6 April.   Sherman replied that “you must be badly scared over there.” 

53RD OHIO

The 53^rd Ohio was also known as the “Long Roll Regiment” – the long roll was the drum call that called a regiment into a battle line.  Appler was a very nervous individual and had called his men out onto a battle line several times in the previous days.  Sherman had become quite irritated with him and after one episode he told Appler, “Take your damned regiment back to Ohio!”  On this day, however, Sherman rode over and changed his mind when he saw Appler’s situation.  Ordered to hold its ground the 53^rd Ohio had support from the 57^th and 77^th Ohio further to the north on the right. 

Two Confederate regiments – 6^th Mississippi and 23^rd Tennessee – came up out of the ravine on the west side of the field into a hail of bullets and artillery bursts – Waterhouse’s Battery E just north of Rea Spring and Barrett’s Batter B next to Shiloh Church.  The 23^rd Tennessee broke under the fire while the 6^th Mississippi tried two more attacks leaving 300 of its 425 dead or wounded in Rea Field. 

Just as his regiment was winning the battle, Appler broke down crying out “Retreat, save yourselves!” and in the words of one of his men, he ‘travelled’.  Some of the regiment would reform again behind Raith’s brigade, but after again ordered forward Appler would panic again and flee.  This time most of the regiment would join him in his flight ending up among the mob at Pittsburgh Landing done for the day.

hILDEBRAND’S FIGHT

Jesse Hildebrand had operated stagecoach lines before the war and had originally commanded the 77^th Ohio before gaining brigade command.  His other regiments continued to fight on even with the retreat of the 53^rd alongside Raith’s brigade which came forward as a reinforcement at Shiloh Church. But as more Rebel brigades came forward and with the collapse of Prentiss’ division to the left, his brigade began to give way around 9:30 am and Sherman’s left flank irreparably collapsed. 

One artillerist reported that Hildebrand “sat down on a long near me and cried like a child at the cowardice of his men whom he was unable to rally.”  He would finish the battle by appointing himself to the staff of John McClernand.  After Shiloh, Hildebrand would go on to command the Federal prison camp at Alton, Illinois where he would die of pneumonia 18 April 1863.

The monument of the 53^rd Ohio is in the middle of Rea Field while the 57^th Ohio and 77^th Ohio are across Peabody Road in the woods to the northwest.  Battery E’s monument is near the 57^th while Battery B’s monument is across the Sherman Road on the west side of the Shiloh Church.

DAY ONE – STOP FIVE

Back in the car, turn right back into Corinth Road and park at Shiloh Church.  Find the trail on the west side of the road across from the church and walk out to visit the monuments erected on the north side of the Shiloh Branch.

ralph buckland

Ralph P. Buckland was a lawyer from Fremont, Ohio where he also served as mayor and as a State senator.  One of his law partners for three years in the late 1840’s was one young Rutherford B. Hayes, a friendship that would stand Buckland well in the post-war years.  At the onset of the war, Buckland became the colonel of the 72^nd Ohio and the regiment joined with Sherman’s division within the Army of the Mississippi prior to the Shiloh campaign.  Sherman made Buckland the commander of his 4^th brigade and Lieutenant Herman Canfield took over the 72^nd.

sHERMAN’S DIVISION ALL IN – bUCKLAND’S FIGHT

Buckland was quick to get his men out into a battle line on the morning of 6 April.  Early in the action, Canfield went down mortally wounded, and Buckland took over direct command of his old regiment having confidence that his two other regiments were in good shape with their commanders.  The brigade held the line until about 10 am when with Hildebrand’s troops to their left scattered, the brigade withdrew to Hamburg-Purdy Road a quarter mile to the north.  Hardly had they reached the road when continued Rebel pressure forced Sherman to order Buckland – now joined with the troops of McDowell’s brigade from the right – to retreat further forming on the right of McClernand’s division.

Sherman reported after the battle that Buckland had handled his brigade well “a cool, judicious, intelligent gentleman needing only confidence and experience to become a good commander.”  Buckland would continue to serve as a brigade commander under Sherman until early in 1865 when he resigned from the army to serve in the U.S. congress for 4 years.  He then resumed his law practice becoming involved with railroads.  His home is in Fremont, Ohio just down the street from Rutherford Hayes’ Spiegel Grove.

MONUMENTS

Take the trail southwest off from the Corinth Road next to the monument of Taylor’s Battery B 1^st Illinois Light Artillery – commanded at Shiloh by Captain Samuel Barrett. Through some woods you come to the monument of the 70^th Ohio standing next to that of the 2^nd Tennessee.  As you continue due west, you come across monuments of the 48^th Ohio and the 72^nd Ohio deep in the woods.  Next to the monument to the 72^nd Ohio is a marker noting the original burial ground of some of the 15 men of the 72^nd who died here.

2ND tENNESSEE

The monument to the 2^nd Tennessee is one of the few regimental monuments remembering Confederate units.  On this day, commanded fell to Colonel William Bate.  Bate served as an enlisted man in a Louisiana regiment at first during the Mexican War.  At the end of his enlistment, he signed on as a lieutenant with the 3^rd Tennessee Volunteers.  After the war, Bate became both a politician and a lawyer back in Tennessee.  With the Civil War, he quickly became elected colonel of the 2^nd Tennessee, which served in reserve during the First Battle of Bull Run.  Transferred at his request back to the West, the regiment joined Johnston’s forces in time to take part as one of the regiments of Patrick Cleburne’s brigade. 

Advancing through the heavy vegetation around the Shiloh Branch. The regiment assaulted the lines of the 70^th Ohio.  Out of 365 men going into battle, the 2^nd Tennessee would lose 235 during 6 and 7 April.  One lost was Bate.  Shot in the legand taken removed to a hospital. There, the surgeon told him he needed an amputation to save his life.  Drawing his pistol, Bate threatened the doctor and kept his leg.  He survived but walked with a limp the rest of his life.

BATE’S POST-WAR CAREER

Returning to duty in October 1862, Bate went on to brigade command at Chickamauga and later division command during the Chattanooga campaign.  He finished the war with three wounds and six horses shot out from under him.

Following the war, Bate returned to the law becoming governor in 1882 and a US Senator in 1887 which he would hold until his death in 1905.  As a senator, he was responsible for the establishment of the Shiloh National Battlefield in 1895 as well as the erection of the monument on the north side of Shiloh Branch facing that of the 70^th Ohio.

DAY ONE – STOP SIX

Drive north past the Hamburg-Purdy Road and the loop road leading off to the left to a mass Confederate grave and monuments to Kirk’s Brigade (Day Two).  Find the trail leading off another mass Confederate burial site on the left – west side – and here are the monuments of another of Sherman’s divisions, McDowell’s brigade. 

john Mcdowell

The regiments of John McDowell covered the right flank of Sherman’s division stretching beyond to the waters of Owl Creek.  Day One saw the brigade laid out to the west of Buckland’s.  Confederates of Preston Pond’s brigade faced them in the early morning of 6 April.  Both brigades had a lot of ground to cover – just under a mile – making both commanders nervous.

John A. McDowell was the younger brother of Irwin McDowell, the Federal general who was in command at the Battle of the First Bull Run/Manassas.  John was not a graduate of West Point like his brother, but he had studied military tactics from a teacher at college who had previously taught at the Point.  Following graduation in 1847, he studied law for a year before joining the California Gold Rush.  After opening a law practice, he gained election as the mayor of Monterey in 1852, but later in the same year, McDowell returned to Iowa – Keokuk – launching into a new career as a civil engineer involving himself with the local railroad industry. 

MCDOWELL’S FIGHT

With the war, McDowell helped to raise the 6^th Iowa Infantry, becoming the regimental colonel.  In early March 1862, McDowell and the 6^th Iowa went up the Tennessee River joining Sherman’s division at Pittsburgh Landing.  Sherman elevated McDowell to brigade command – Lieutenant Colonel Francis Cummins took over command of the 6^th Iowa – and placed the brigade on the far-right side of the Federal army on the north side of Shiloh Branch – 40^th Illinois, 46^th Ohio and 6^th Iowa left to right in alignment.

At 8 am on 6 April, the brigade advance to the top of the ravine overlooking Shiloh Branch – the 40^th Illinois forming on the right of Buckland’s brigade.  Preston Pond’s brigade skirmished with McDowell’s men but did not push their attack because of the terrain.  Events on the right of the brigade forced them to retreat around 10 am and they had to fight their way through Confederate forces to rejoin the rest of Sherman’s division.

MONUMENTS

The monuments of McDowell’s brigade lay along a trail leading west off Sherman Road opposite the regimental monument of the 81^st Ohio – just north of Woolf Field.  First is the 40^th Illinois, then the 13^th Missouri/22^nd Ohio which fought along with McDowell’s men this day, followed by the 6^th Iowa and the 46^th Ohio.  Next to the 6^th Iowa, there is a mass Confederate grave and a marker noting the former regimental burial ground.  Originally 52 soldiers of the 6^th Iowa lay buried in a mass grave here before reinterment to the National Cemetery above Pittsburgh Landing.

DAY ONE – STOP SEVEN

Back to the intersection of Hamburg-Purdy Road.  Park at the mortuary monument remembering Brigadier General Julius Raith.

MCCLERNAND’S DIVISION COMES TO AID

Julius Raith came with his family from Germany in 1836 to Illinois – he was 15.  His career as a flour millwright became interrupted during the Mexican War when he served as a captain earning distinction for his service.  With the onset of the Civil War, Raith became the colonel of the 43^rd Illinois Infantry in September 1861.  The 43^rd Illinois became assigned to the 3^rd brigade of McClernand’s division arriving just after the victory at Ft Donelson.

With the sounds of battle at hand on 6 April, Raith had his men’s tents struck and took command of the brigade with the absence of the regular commander who was back in Illinois on furlough.  Raith’s regiment was the only one of the brigades ready for the storm that quickly broke over them with the collapse of the 53^rd and then the 57^th Ohio.  The 49^th Illinois had only enough time to gather up their guns.  Supporting Sherman’s left, Raith’s men kept the Confederates at bay until Prentiss’ division fell apart around 9 am. 

rAITH’S LONG DAY

Johnston directed five brigades to attack northwest behind Sherman’s position hitting Raith in the flank.  Falling back to the Hamburg-Purdy Road, Raith’s men reunited with McClernand’s other brigades, but this line quickly fell apart, too.  Here Raith suffered a hit in the leg just above the knee.  Left on the field, his men retreated.  He laid on the ground for 24 hours before his recovery after the successful counterattack of the following day.  Evacuated by steamer, his leg was amputated but four days later – 11 April – Raith died of tetanus.

Brigade command next evolved to Lieutenant Colonel Enos Wood of the 17^th Illinois.  The men retreated back along with the rest of McClernand’s division, counterattacking along with Sherman’s survivors from just south of Jones Field around noon.  Finally, around 3 pm, they retreated again, low on ammunition and with no reinforcements in sight.  They pulled back to the east side of Tilghman Branch ending the day at the west end of Grant’s “Last Stand” line on the north side of Dill Branch ravine.

MONUMENTS

Colonel Raith’s mortuary monument sits at the crossroads of the Corinth and Hamburg-Purdy Roads.  His 43^rd Illinois monument is across the road on the south side while the monument of the 49^th Illinois is just to the east of Raith’s monument.  The other two regiments of the brigade have placed their monuments in the woods just south and east of the Shiloh Church – the 17^th Illinois and the 29^th Illinois.

Walking further east along the Confederate Road, you come to the monuments of McClernand’s other two brigades, Marsh and Hare.

The brigade monuments stand west-east just south of Corinth Road: the 11^th and 20^th Illinois are on the immediate south side of the Illinois State monument while the 48^th and 45^th Illinois are in the woods to the east between the State monument and the Review Field.

DAY ONE – STOP EIGHT

Back in the car, drive past the east edge of Woolf Field.  From either here or the parking area for Ruggles Battery on the northwest edge of Duncan Field and dismount.  There are monuments to the third brigade – Abraham Hare’s – of John McClernand in the woods on the south side of Confederate Road.  To the north, there are monuments to the brigade of Veatch, one of the brigades of Stephen Hurlbut’s division.

HARE’S FIGHT

The monuments of Hare’s brigade lie hidden in the woods south of the Corinth Road and north of the Review Field:  the 13^th Iowa, 18^th Illinois and 8^th Illinois – west to east.  The original burial ground marker for the 8^th Illinois lies halfway between the latter two monuments.  The 11^th Iowa monument is just north of Corinth Road in Woolf Field next to the monument for Dresser’s Battery.

The brigade monuments sit along Corinth Road with the Illinois regiments on the south side – the 15^th Illinois is just west of the Illinois State Monument, the 46^th Illinois on the east side and the 14^th Illinois is another fifty yards further east.  The 25^th Indiana is on the north side of the road yet another fifty yards to the east.

DAY ONE – STOP NINE

Continue along Confederate Road to the parking area for Ruggles’ Battery on the northwest corner of Duncan Field if you nave not parked there already.  We have arrived at the scene of the crescendo for the first day at Shiloh, the assault on the Federal position at the Hornet’s Nest.  Earlier Federal positions to the south had folded.  The camps of the divisions of Sherman and Prentiss overrun.  John McClernand’s men had thrown in their lot, but they became brushed back as well.  Survivors of those divisions gained reinforcement with men of Stephen Hurlbut and William H.L. Wallace as they formed their lines along the Sunken Road and the Peach Orchard.  Here, the battle would rage for most of the afternoon.

From here, you walk along the Sunken Road position, first along the eastern edge of Duncan Field and then into the woods.  Finally, you come out onto the Peach Orchard and Sarah Bell’s cotton field.  The monuments show where the Federal regiments lined up to face their constant attacks of their adversaries.

rUGGLES, A YANKEE GONE SOUTH

Daniel Ruggles was the 1^st Division commander of Braxton Bragg’s 2^nd Corps.   He was from Massachusetts and had graduated from West Point in 1833.  Serving in the Mexican War and a variety of army posts up until the outbreak of the Civil War, he stayed south – his wife hails from Fredericksburg, Virginia where he lies buried in the Confederate Cemetery – and his son, a cadet at Annapolis, also joined him as an aide.

The battle had been raging in the area of the Hornet’s Nest and the Sunken Road since around noon.  Bragg ordered on frontal assault after another – eight attacks in all with upwards to 10,000 Confederates involved. 

CONFEDERATE BATTERIES REDUCE THE FEDERALS ON THE SUNKEN ROAD

While Bragg didn’t order all eight attacks, he was responsible for most and the casualties incurred here estimated at some 2,400 men.  Flanking movements would eventually cause the end of the Federal position, but the massive battery of guns arrayed together around 3:30pm on the west side of Duncan Field and stretching southwards probably added encouragement to the disintegration.  Some 53 guns blasted away at a range of only 500 yards around 4 pm.  Who gathered the guns is of some debate, but Ruggles is usually given credit. It appears others, including Beauregard had a similar idea at the same time.  Numerous Federal guns along the Sunken Road stubbornly replied for awhile, but they eventually withdrew.  While the Confederate batteries did not defeat the Federals by themselves, they certainly made it a more difficult time.

TUTTLE’S FIGHT – wALLACE’S DIVISION IS ON THE FIELD

Colonel James Tuttle‘s brigade comprised of four Iowan regiments – he had been in part responsible for raising the 2nd Iowa. As a part of W.H.L. Wallace‘s division on the morning of 6 April, the somewhat experienced men of Tuttle’s brigade came out forming a line along the Sunken Road on the eastern edge of Duncan Field – the 14th, 12th, 7th and 2nd lined up left to right.

From 9:30 am until 5 pm the brigade held nine separate attacks. It wasn’t until General Daniel Ruggles pulled together a grand battery of some 60 or so guns to pound away at the Federals – and the fact that the Confederates had seeped around the Federal flanks – that Wallace ordered a retreat. The 2nd and 7th Iowa were under Tuttle’s direct attention and were able to withdraw, but the 12th and 14th Iowa were not so lucky. Surrounded and forced to surrender with the remnants of Prentiss’ command at about 5:30 pm.

With Wallace’s death, Tuttle assumed divisional command and gathered the remnants to serve as a reserve the next day for Don Carlos Buell’s attack – both the 2nd and 7th Iowa getting in on the action.

MONUMENTS

The monuments of Tuttle’s regiments stand on the east side of Duncan Field along the north section of the Sunken Road where they held up the bulk of the Confederate army giving time for the rest of the Federal army to regroup around Pittsburgh Landing with the help of Munch’s Battery – 1st Minnesota Light Artillery.

SWEENY’S FIGHT

The brigade of Thomas W. Sweeny was one of the largest on the fields of Shiloh – six regiments, five from Illinois. With the onset of the fighting, W.H.L. Wallace’s division came forward from their camps to try and salvage the situation that had developed as Prentiss’ division collapsed. Sweeny’s men followed Wallace’s 1st brigade – Tuttle’s Iowans – halting in a reserve position along the Corinth Road. The brigade then split apart with regiments going to different parts of the battle as the need arose. Only the 7th Illinois and the 58th Illinois fought together as a unit all day sent forward to extend Tuttle’s line to the north across the Corinth Road – 9:30 am.

DELAYING ACTIONS ON THE SUNKEN ROAD

Next, the 50th Illinois went to the far left, extending McArthur’s line deep in the woods east of the Peach Orchard. The 50th entered the fight with old flintlock muskets which jammed after firing only a few rounds complicating their struggle. Stuart’s defeat further threatened this line and the 50th withdrew with the 12th Illinois to whom they had joined with fighting just east now of the Bloody Pond. Holding on – joined now by the 57th Illinois – for about an hour late in the afternoon, this force finally retreated to the landing when they ran out of ammunition and were in danger of envelopment on their left flank.

Around 11 am, the 8th Iowa – the lone non-Illinois regiment of the brigade – joined the left of Tuttle’s men between them and the survivors of Prentiss’ division along the Sunken Road. The fight of the 8th Iowa, as well as the 7th and 58th Illinois, was the same as Tuttle’s men as they defended their positions along the Sunken Road on the east edge of Duncan Field. Helped by the gunfire from Hickenlooper’s battery, the line held strong against repeated frontal assaults until about 5pm when the whole Hornet’s Nest-Sunken Road position began collapsing as the Confederates finally succeeded in flanking and surrounding the Federals. Many from the 8th Iowa and 58th Illinois suffered capture.

The last regiment of the brigade was the 52nd Illinois, a group that Sweeny, himself, started with. Around 3 pm, the 52nd went to the far right of the Federal line. They would help repel late Rebel attacks by Wharton’s Texas Rangers and Pond’s brigade around 4:30 pm before retreating to the Landing.

LAUMAN’S MEN EXTEND THE LINE

Deeper into the woods along the Sunken Road position lie the monuments of Lauman’s brigade. On 6 April, the men moved to form up on the west side of the Peach Orchard extending into the woods west from there – 17th Kentucky, 25th Kentucky, 44th Indiana, 31st Indiana left to right. They were attacked from 9 am on. Around 2 pm, the brigade shifted by order of division commander Hurlbut to the far left of the Federal line to try and stabilize the deteriorating situation made dire by Stuart’s defeat. They held there for two hours before retiring to the Dill Branch line. The brigade served alongside Sherman’s division on 7 April.

The monuments of both Lauman and Williams – both brigades of Stephen Hurlbut along with Veatch whose brigade we already saw posted further to the west closer to Woolf Field – sit out front from the Sunken Road.  Lauman’s regiments defended in the woods while those of Williams set up first on the south edge of Sarah Bell’s cotton field before moving north into the Peach Orchard.

WILLIAM’S FIGHT IN THE COTTON FIELD AND PEACH ORCHARD

Nelson Williams attended West Point for a year in 1839 before flunking out the following year. He worked for a while in New York before moving to Iowa in 1855. With the onset of war, Williams became the colonel of the 3rd Iowa, leading them into battle first in Missouri at Blue Mills Landing near Kansas City on 17 September 1861. The regiment, a part of Stephen Hurlbut’s command, joined Grant’s force in February 1862 with Williams assuming brigade command just before Shiloh.

The brigade moved south on the Hamburg-Savannah Road forming along the south side of Sarah Bell’s cotton field – the 42nd Illinois, 28th Illinois, 32nd Illinois and 3rd Iowa, left to right. Early in the battle, Williams went out of action when his horse fell, shot out from under him. Brigade command fell to Colonel Isaac Pugh of the 41st Illinois. After the initial Confederate attack, Pugh pulled the brigade back to the center of the field – near where the regimental monuments lie today. Attacked by two Rebel brigades at 1:30 pm, the men pulled further back to the Peach Orchard an hour later.

FEDERAL LEFT SLOWLY COLLAPSES

Further to the left, things became more desperate for the Federals and the 32nd Illinois went to the east side of the road to try and help McArthur’s two regiments. With the left pushed back, Pugh pulled his men back to Wicker Field where they held out until withdrawing to the Landing around 4 pm out of ammunition.

The 3rd Iowa, on the right, held their position along with Prentiss’ men on the sunken Road until about 5 pm. Withdrawing just as the Confederates surrounded the Hornet’s Nest position, many of the men of the 3rd Iowa suffered Prentiss’ fate of capture, including the commander Major William Stone – a future governor of Iowa. The ranking officer by day’s end dropped down to a lieutenant who took what the leftover command into battle the next day. Along with the remains of the 3rd Iowa, the rest of the brigade fought on 7 April on McClernand’s left until around noon.

DAY ONE – STOP TEN

You can either return to your car or continue to the east on foot.  With your car, you can reposition by driving east on Confederate Road taking a right onto Eastern Corinth Road, the first intersection.  From here, drive to Hamburg-Purdy Road.  Along the way, there are a host of tablets describing actions of different Confederate units as they fought and died in front of the Hornet’s Nest.  You also pass the lone monument of the 14^th Wisconsin Regiment which relates to actions of the next day’s battle – 7 April.  Turn left onto Hamburg-Purdy and drive to the intersection of Hamburg-Savannah Road.  Park by the headquarters monument – cannonball pyramid – for Stuart’s brigade just east of the intersection.  A trail to the east leads to monuments to his regiments.

Walk or drive north to the mortuary monument for Albert Sidney Johnston to see this climactic point of the battlefield.  Then, walk further north to trails leading into the woods on the right-hand side of the road opposite the Bloody Pond.  Here are monuments to McArthur’s regiments. 

STUART’S FIGHT

Colonel David Stuart sought redemption for his tattered reputation on the battlefields of the Civil War. A graduate of Amherst, he had practiced law in Detroit and had served one term in the U.S. Congress during the mid-1850’s. Defeated in a re-election bid, Stuart moved to Chicago to become a lawyer for the Illinois Central Railroad. His downfall came when he became a figure of interest in a prominent divorce trial where he reputedly cuckolded the president of the Illinois Central, ostracized by most of Chicago society as a result.

When he went to the State of Illinois at the war’s onset, he was denied permission to raise a regiment for the Federal cause. He went instead to Washington where he was finally allowed to raise two regiments – one being the 55th Illinois of which he became the colonel. Assigned to Sherman’s division, Stuart gained brigade command with the 55th Illinois joined to the 54th and 71st Ohio. The brigade went to protect the far left of the Union line near Lick Creek.

JOHNSTON PERSONALLY GUIDES HIS RIGHT FLANK

In the early going of the fight, a message was sent to General Johnston that the Federals had a whole division far to the left threatening the Confederate right flank which was just then pushing through Prentiss’ division. Johnston’s original plan was to overload his right and cut the Federals off from their base along the Tennessee River at Pittsburgh Landing. But with the stubborn defense of Sherman’s division, he shifted men in that direction after dealing with Prentiss – he thought by getting around Prentiss, he had already sneaked around the Federal left.

With this new information, Johnston ordered two of the three brigades from Brigadier General Jones Withers‘ division – Chalmers and Jackson – plus the last two brigades of Breckinridge’s reserve corps – Bowen and Statham – to redeploy and attack the Federal left anew.  Breckinridge’s troops would face the men of Hurlbut’s division plus McArthur’s brigade at the Bell Farm while the other brigades attacked the isolated ‘division’ of Stuart – 11 am.

71ST OHIO

Stuart’s problems became more acute early on when at about 10 am, Confederate artillery pulled into position against the 71st Ohio – which took up a position on Stuart’s right. Colonel Rodney Mason, commanding the 71st mentioned to Stuart that he didn’t think his men could stand more than 10 minutes if artillery came into the picture. True to his words, after no more than two or three rounds were fired, Mason said “Then we must be getting out of this.” The regiment fell back in chaos over a half mile, abandoned by their colonel. A few groups would turn and fight – one such was led by Lieutenant Colonel Barton Kyle who died – but most ended up back at Pittsburgh Landing – one group catching a ride on a Union gunboat.

sTUART’S COLLAPSE

This left Stuart with the 800 men of the 55th Illinois and 54th Ohio. Some of the Illinois men began to flee as well, but Stuart was able to rally most of t hem before taking a bullet to a shoulder knocking him, too, out of the fight.

Brigade command fell to Lieutenant Colonel Oscar Malmborg, a Swedish emigrant who had some experience in the Mexican War and antebellum militia. Malmborg formed the 55th into a square – a military position normally reserved for defense against cavalry attacks. This formation had not been seen before by the attacking Rebels and they paused thinking it to be some sort of trap.

The 55th then settled back to the ridgeline where their monument sits and with the 54th Ohio, they fought mostly against the men of Chalmers’ brigade – Jackson’ s men had penetrated in between Stuart and McArthur’s brigade – which had come up to try and support Stuart and the Federal left.

BACK TO PITTSBURG LANDING

After about two hours, Stuart’s men began to withdraw across the ravine on their north side – here the Confederates caused many casualties shooting down into the milling Federals below. With ammunition finally depleted, the brigade withdrew to the Landing with the Rebels letting them go, drifting themselves to the sound of the guns at the Hornet’s Nest further to the west.

Malmborg gathered the men up at the Landing along with a contingent from the 71st and other stragglers he could coerce – some 3,000 men in all – and formed up the backbone of Grant’s “Last Line” along the northern edge of the Dill Branch ravine. Late in the day, the Confederates made a couple half-hearted attacks on this line – again Chalmers’ and Jackson’s men involved – but the Confederates short of men, ammunition and artillery by this time had their attack easily snuffed out.

The regimental monuments lay just off Hamburg Road on the north side of Larkin Bell’s Field. The 71st remains the most prominent sited just behind Tour Stop 14: Field Hospital – while the other two regiments that fought the hardest – the 55th Illinois and the 54th Ohio – are off in the woods to the east along the ridge where they stood for two hours. The markers for the original burial grounds for their fallen are located next to their monuments.

FEDERAL LEFT

McArthur’s brigade was the last of W.H.L. Wallace’s division.  Ssent out to the east of the rest of the division to help the lone outlier of Sherman’s, Stuart’s brigade.  Together, they formed the Federal left which Johnston had hoped to turn all day.  He thought he had turned their left with the defeat of Prentiss, but information arrived stating another Federal division still existed on the left. 

Johnston turned his attention back from the fighting around Shiloh Church back to trying to turn the left.  His forces would be successful over time, but Johnston himself would become a casualty.  With Beauregard far back behind the lines, the Confederate attack on the left would fizzle out as soldiers drifted off to the sound of the guns firing in the Hornet’s Nest.  By the time they refocused on the original plan, the day was nearly done, Confederate forces were disorganized, and Grant had cobbled together an impressive line to defend the landing.  New Federal forces streamed into the scene, as well, as night fell.

MCARTHUR’S FIGHT

Brigadier general John McArthur was an emigrant from Scotland in his early 20’s coming to Chicago where he eventually set up an iron works before the war. At the outbreak of the war, McArthur became the colonel of the 12th Illinois though because of his prior experience in the Chicago Highland Guards – a militia unit – he was elevated to brigade command. Men of his brigade wore Scottish caps earning themselves the nickname of the Highland Brigade.

At Shiloh, his five regiments dispersed and only the 9th and 12th Illinois fought together as a unit under McArthur’s direct supervision. The 13th Missouri went early on to help Sherman – engaging in the 11 am fight in Jones Field. They fought with Sherman’s men the second day of the battle, as well. The 14th Missouri and 81st Ohio detached to guard the Snake Creek Bridge to the north. The 14th Missouri was a somewhat special unit while the 81st Ohio saw little action during the battle.  They did not get into the fight until ordered by Grant to the intersection of the Corinth and Hamburg-Savannah roads. Here the original monument was to be placed but two former officers protested successfully. They got the monument placed just north of Woolf Field where they saw brief action on 7 April.

ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON

In between the monuments for the regiments of McArthur and Stuart, you will find the mortuary monument commemorating the Confederate army commander Albert Sidney Johnston of Texas, the highest-ranking officer of either side to fall in the war.  Johnston had been one of the highest-ranking officers in the antebellum Federal army.  He resigned his commission and his post as commander of the Department of the Pacific once Texas seceded. 

A longtime friend of Jefferson Davis, Johnston, became appointed to the rank of full general and given command of the Confederacy’s Western Department.  The main problem facing Johnston strategically was he had too few men to carry out Davis’s desire to not surrender any part of Confederate soil to the enemy.  That and he had the misfortune of having some subordinate commanders who were not very competent.

JOHNSTON IN THE WEST

Johnston concentrated his army at Bowling Green in Kentucky at the end of 1861 against Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio while forts were erected to defend the major rivers.  Grant’s capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson tore a huge hole in his line forcing his own army to pull south giving up Nashville without a fight.  He concentrated his army at Corinth, Mississippi and brought together other troops from all over his department.  Johnston hoped to strike against Grant’s force which was making its way up the Tennessee River before Buell joined with him.  Thus, he would retrieve something of the strategic situation.

johnston’s death

At Shiloh, his plan was to hit the Federal army hard on its left flank and cut it off from the Tennessee River and its base at Pittsburgh Landing.  Wounded in the leg while rallying troops fighting near the Peach Orchard,an artery was nicked. Johnston died in the ravine just to the south of the mortuary monument.  There are some questions as to whether the wound was from friendly fire or not.  His loss was a tremendous blow to Davis, “When Sidney Johnston fell, it was the turning point of our fate; for we had no other to take up his work in the West.”  No one whom Jefferson Davis trusted as much, anyway.  Johnston lies buried today at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.

Other monuments found in the woods on the Federal left include the 50^th and 57^th Illinois of Sweeny’s brigade sent over to help, as well as the 32^nd Illinois of Williams.

DAY ONE – STOP ELEVEN

Not really one stop, but a series of stops come next.  Drive north on Hamburg-Savannah Road and you will find a few monuments erected by individual States in honor of their regiments – Missouri and Alabama, first.

STATE MONUMENTS – MISSOURI AND ALABAMA

The two monuments erected to the soldiers hailing from Missouri and Kentucky are both relatively recent additions to the granite forest of Shiloh.  Missourians fought on both sides here at Shiloh.  The Federal side was represented by the 8^th, 13^th, 14^th, 21^st, 23^rd and 25^th Infantry and four batteries of artillery while on the Confederate side there was the 1^st Missouri.  The monument stands in the shape of the State, found on the east side of the Hamburg-Savannah Road at the north end of Wicker Field.  Dedicated in 1971, with a Boy Scout troop reported to be the impetus behind the monument’s development.

Alabamians concentrated in the brigades of Brigadier General Adley Gladden and Brigadier General John K. Jackson with a couple of other regiments serving elsewhere.  There are two monuments next to each other on the west side of the Hamburg-Savannah Road across from the Cloud Field.  The Alabama State monument dates to 1907 and lists the various regiments and other units which came from Alabama.

cOLONEL JOSEPH WHEELER

Next to the State monument stands another memorial erected in 1930 by the General Wheeler Memorial Association.  Because no personal monuments are allowed here at Shiloh besides the mortuary memorials, this monument stands technically dedicated to the 19^th Alabama which Wheeler – a West Pointer – led as a young colonel at Shiloh.  Wheeler went on to lead the cavalry of the Army of Tennessee for Braxton Bragg.  He always seemed to benefit with his association with Bragg much to the frustration of Bragg’s other famous cavalry commander, Nathan Bedford Forrest. 

wHEELER AFTER THE WAR

After the war, Wheeler became a congressman from Alabama in 1880.  In 1898, Wheeler gained command of the cavalry division during the Cuban campaign, a division which included Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.  At the Battle of Las Guasimas, Wheeler got caught up in the moment shouting, “Let’s go boys!  We’ve got the damn Yankees on the run again!”  Sickness sidelined him for the climactic Battle of San Juan Hill, but he recovered enough to serve as a brigade commander under Arthur McArthur in the Philippines for six months after Cuba. 

He attended the 100^th anniversary of West Point in 1902 wearing his U.S. Army full dress uniform with his general rank.  Confederate comrade James Longstreet saw him coming and said, “Joe, I hope that Almighty God takes me before you, for I want to be within the gates of hell to hear Jubal Early cuss you in the blue uniform!”  Wheeler is one of a very few numbers of men who served in the Confederacy to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

KENTUCKY

Turn left onto Brown’s Landing Road on the south side of Cloud Field next to where the Alabama Monument sits across Hamburg-Savannah Road.  The Kentucky State Monument stands on the north side of the road.  Kentucky, like Missouri, was a Border State and sent men to both sides of the conflict.  This monument is another relatively recent addition to the Park and Kentucky Girl Scouts were the founding force here.  Set between two granite pillars – Georgian – an extensive tablet on both sides describes with maps and text the actions of the various Kentuckians – some 6,500 for the Federals and 2,000 for the Confederacy – with one day’s action recorded on each side.  The monument dates to 1974.

NATIVE AMERICAN BURIAL MOUNDS

Just as the road turns north to drop down to the Tennessee River, trails lead off to the right visiting prehistoric Native American burial mounds.  It is estimated that used to be a village of more than 100 houses here with eight large mounds – seven being substructure platform mounds and one was a burial mound. 

The site was occupied from 100 to 1450 AD by people of the Woodland and later Early Mississippi and cultures.  There were some six other subsidiary villages within a 20-mile reach of this site.  Maize agriculture served the basis of the cultures and remains a good representation of earlier indigenous peoples found throughout the region.  The site, included as a part of the National Park for so long, has not suffered much damage due to subsequent agriculture.  The mounds were excavated in 1934 under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution.  One of the mounds was used as a burial ground for the 28^th Illinois before they were removed to the National Cemetery.

FEDERAL GUNBOATs own THE TENESSEE

Continuing north, you come past a tablet describing the actions of Federal gunboats in the Tennessee River.  Steam –powered gunboats were a major factor in the successful Federal penetration into the riverine regions of the Confederate west.  Mobility and firepower provided by the boats gave the Union a huge advantage.  Railroads would become more important as the war went on and as the Federal were able to secure those lines, but in the early part of the war, the water transport system was key for the North.

The Confederacy did try and place obstacles on the rivers – Fort Henry on the Tennessee, Fort Donelson on the Cumberland and Island #10 and Fort Pillow on the Mississippi.  Fort Henry was never complete – and what was finished was poorly done – before the Federal gunboats pounded the water-level fort into submission.  Fort Donelson was set higher above the water and Grant’s army was needed to reduce that fort.  Island 10 was under siege by a separate army under General John Pope at the time of Shiloh.  The Confederate failure at Shiloh would doom the defense of this fort.  The fort was soon abandoned so the defenders would not be cut off, situated so far to the north of supporting Confederate lines after Shiloh.  The Confederate defeat at Shiloh and withdrawal from Island #10 also meant the Confederates had to give up Memphis and all western Tennessee.

gunboats make their voices known at shiloh

Here, at Shiloh, steamboats provided mobility to the Federal forces bringing troops and supplies upriver, evacuating the wounded, as needed.  The gunboats Tyler and Lexington were cladded with timber-reinforced siding serving as armor.  They served as artillery platforms with their large nine-inch naval guns, by far the largest guns used here at the battle.  The two boats cruised in the river opposite the mouth of the Dill Branch ravine, lobbing their large rounds up the ravine.   The noise was scarier than the actual effect of the guns, but the gunboats were another factor in convincing the Confederates that an early evening attack on Grant’s “Last Line” was not how they really wanted to end their long day on 6 April.

FEDERALS GATHER ON THE NORTH SIDE OF DILL RAVINE

The road now climbs up to the Shiloh plain above the Dill Branch ravine back up towards the Visitor Center and the National Cemetery.  Atop the ravine you find the marker for Munch’s Battery 1^st Minnesota Light Artillery (Prentiss’ brigade) and the monument for Markgraf’s Battery 8^th Ohio Light Artillery.  Both provided enfilade fire from the left side directly down the ranks of those Confederates brave enough to cross over the Dill Branch in the last actions of the day.

GRANT’S “LAST lINE”

Grant brought along a battery of 24-pound siege guns to use later at Corinth, if needed.  The guns – Battery B 2^nd Illinois Light Artillery were situated just above Pittsburgh Landing as the battle began.  It was these guns that Grant’s artillery chief, Colonel Joseph Webster, used as a centerpiece for a grand battery of some 20+ guns – according to Grant though Beauregard claims there were more than 60 – solidifying his ‘last line” position late on 6 April. 

There are guns and markers for Schwartz’s Battery E 2^nd Illinois Light Artillery (McClernand), Richardson’s Battery D 1^st Missouri Light Artillery (W.H.L. Wallace), Stone’s Battery K 1^st Missouri Light Artillery (W.H.L. Wallace), Dresser’s Battery D 2^nd Illinois Light Artillery (McClernand), and Mann’s Battery C 1^st Missouri Light Artillery (Hurlbut) alongside the siege guns above the Dill Branch ravine.  Additionally, you will find markers for Powell’s Battery F 2^nd Illinois Light Artillery (Prentiss) across the road south of the Park bookstore; the monument for Silversparre’s Battery H 1^st Illinois Light Artillery (Prentiss) is on the south side of the bookstore. 

The long Sunday of 6 April ended finally at the ravine of Dill Branch.  It had been a good day for the Army of Mississippi.  They had badly bruised the Federals of the Army of the Tennessee.  But help was pouring in.  Grant’s “lost” division commanded by Lew Wallace had finally arrived on the scene. 

WALLACE’S “LOST” DIVISION

Wallace’s wartime career suffered a grievous blow on 6 April.  His men were stationed at Crump’s Landing on the opposite side of the Tennessee River from Savannah – some 15 miles to the north.  Grant had started the early morning at Savannah, but with the sound of the gunfire to the south, he got on a steamboat and proceeded upriver to Pittsburgh Landing at once. 

Before going upriver though he stopped to confer with Wallace telling him to bring his division up, but he neglected to tell him by which road.  He also told him to come in on Sherman’s right.  Wallace took his division on a road that would do exactly that. 

The problem was that Sherman was no longer where he had been.   His division had been pushed back far to the north and Wallace would have brought his division in completely isolated from the rest of the Union army.  Grant was looking for Wallace’s division all day in the hope of turning the tide of events that had swept over his army, but miscommunications between Wallace and Grant’s staff dogged this hope all day.  Wrong roads and slow marches, Wallace’s division did not come in on the Union right until nightfall.

END OF A LONG DAY

Buell’s army also arrived.  The Federals regrouped hoping to reverse the actions the next day.  Sherman meeting with Grant that night thinking the general would order a retreat across the river to help his wounded army recuperate said, “Well, Grant, we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?”  Grant replied, “Yes, lick ‘em tomorrow, though.”