The Battle of Shiloh: Mc and Kirk's

Let us turn now to McCook. On Crittenden's right Rousseau's brigade was early engaged, sustaining the attack of eight o'clock, and the heavier succeeding ones. Meanwhile, Kirk's brigade and a part of Gibson's had been ferried across from Savannah, hurried to the ground, and were deployed by McCook in short supporting distance to the right and rear of Rousseau. Willich's regiment he held in reserve behind his second line. McCook shared the varying fortunes of the morning, till the gradual giving way of the Confederate right by ten o'clock. Then Rousseau, finding his advance no longer checked, moved onward till he encountered the troops withdrawn to the Corinth road from Nelson's front. Here a fierce and long-contested engagement took place, the Confederates forming in McClernand's camp, to which they clung with desperation, but which at length they were forced to abandon to Rousseau, together with a battery captured the day before, of which one section had been playing on Rousseau's advance. But, as the Union line swept forward, McCook and Crittenden had become separated, and a counter-attack on McCook's left threatened to turn it, and was the signal for a fierce struggle. There then came a lull, and at one o'clock the battle began with fresh fury. McCook had reached a key-point in the Confederate line, a green wood about five hundred yards east of the church. Two batteries, one next the church and the other nearer the Hamburg road, swept the open space with grape and canister in front of the green wood, and the musketry fire was very severe. Grant hurried forward what aid he could to McClernand, Hurlburt putting in the remainder of his division, and Sherman appearing with his brigades. "Here," says Sherman, "at the point where the Corinth road crosses the line of General McClernand's camp, I saw for the first time the well-ordered and compact Kentucky forces of General Buell, whose soldierly movement at once gave confidence to our newer and less disciplined forces. Here I saw Willich's regiment advance upon a point of water-oaks and thicket, behind which I knew the enemy was in great strength, and enter it in beautiful style. Then arose the severest musketry fire I ever heard, and lasted some twenty minutes, when this splendid regiment had to fall back." Indeed, the conflict, arising on McCook's left, had spread all along his front and over that of Crittenden. Willich's regiment, having passed through Kirk's brigade, to the front, was thrown across to the green wood, in double column on the centre, with the flank companies skirmishing in advance. Then it received the overpowering attack which Sherman witnessed. At this juncture Kirk's brigade got into position on McCook's left, and Rousseau, who had expended all his ammunition in the morning's battle, retired through it to the rear for a fresh supply. Gibson was next thrown in on Kirk's left. For an hour a terrific contest went on, the Confederates holding their position tenaciously, and some-times even taking the offensive. Finally, at two o'clock, Rousseau's brigade again moved to the front, supported by one of Hurlburt's brigades on the left and by McClernand on the right. McCook had no artillery; but the three uncaptured guns of Wood's battery and two of McAllister's were turned by McClernand and Sherman against the enemy. Finding the Confederates at last giving way before him, McCook ordered a general advance, and Rousseau's brigade, "beautifully deployed," says Sherman, "entered the dreaded wood, and moved in splendid order steadily to the front, sweeping everything before it." Indeed, the battle was already decided. At half-past one o'clock, Beauregard had issued orders to withdraw from the field. The last desperate fighting covered the attempt, and the final Union advance at two o'clock was comparatively unresisted. The withdrawal commenced on the Confederate right, in front of Nelson, and was transmitted to the left. At the latter point, Lew Wallace had steadily swung forward, participating in the varying fortunes of the day. His division also, at two o'clock, finding the obstinate enemy giving way, burst through the woods, easily carrying all before them. The Confederate retreat was conducted with perfect order and precision. Half a mile distant from Shiloh Church, on a commanding ridge, a reserve, selected for that purpose, was drawn up in line of battle for the expected attack.

It did not come. Having wasted half an hour, the line was withdrawn a mile farther. Here the artillery played for a time upon a small Union column advanced in pursuit; but no engagement took place, and even this desultory firing ceased by four o'clock. The battle of Shiloh was over.

This battle was followed by a concentration of all the Union armies of the West, and an advance on Corinth, General Halleck taking command. His army, in round numbers, now amounted to one hundred and twenty thousand men. That of Beauregard had been increased to about fifty thousand. The advance was made so slowly and cautiously that the Confederates, who had decided to evacuate Corinth, succeeded in getting out all their war-material before Halleck reached there, on the 30th of May. The place was at once strongly fortified as a Union stronghold. Shortly afterwards, on June 6, the naval battle at Memphis, above described, took place, and that town was captured. All West Tennessee and Northern Mississippi were now in Union hands, and highly-important progress had been made in the labor of conquering the West and South. Grant remarks that up to the battle of Shiloh he had shared in the general belief that a decisive Union victory would cause the sudden collapse of the Confederacy. The stand of the Confederates after that battle taught him differently. He perceived now that complete conquest was necessary. Sherman seems to have been of this opinion from the first.