The Battle of Shiloh: Union and Grant's

Already now the Confederates were surging and recoiling in a desperate series of final charges. Warned by the descending sun to do quickly what remained to be done, they threw forward everything to the attempt. Their batteries, run to the front, crowned the inferior crest of the ravine, and opened a defiant fire from ridge to ridge, and threw shells even across the river into the woods on the other bank. Their infantry, wasted by the day's slaughter, had become almost disorganized by the plunder of the last two Union camps, and a fatal loss of time ensued while the officers pulled them out from the spoils. The men, still spirited, gazed somewhat aghast at the guncrowned slope above them, whence Webster's artillery thundered across the ravine, while their right flank was swept by broadsides of eight-inch shells from the Lexington and Tyler. "Forward" was the word throughout the Confederate line. Bragg held the right, on the southerly slope of the ravine, extending near the river, but prevented from reaching it by the gunboat fire; Polk the centre, nearer the head of the ravine; while Hardee carried the left beyond the Corinth road. At the latter point the line was half a mile from the water, and four hundred yards from the artillery on the bluffs. There were few organizations, even of regiments, on the Union side, but a straggling line from Wallace's and other commands, voluntarily rallying near the guns, was already opening an independent but annoying fire; and these resolute soldiers were as safe as the torrent of fugitives incessantly pouring down to the Landing, among whom the Confederate shells were bursting. Again and again, through the fire of the artillery, the gunboats, and Ammen's fresh brigade, and the severe flanking fire of troops rallying on the Union right, the Confederates streamed down the ravine and clambered up the dense thickets on the other slope. Again and again they were repulsed with perfect ease, and amid great loss; for, besides their natural exhaustion, the commands had been so broken up by the victory of the day and by the scramble for the spoils that while some brigades were forming others were charging, and there was no concerted attack, but only spontaneous rushes by subdivisions, speedily checked by flank fire. And when once some of Breckinridge's troops, on the right, did nearly turn the artillery position, so that some of the gunners absolutely abandoned their pieces, Ammen, who had just deployed, again and finally drove the assailants down the slope.

Confident still, flushed with past success, and observing the Union debacle behind the artillery, Bragg and Polk urged a fresh and more compact assault, on the ground that the nearer they drew to the Union position the less perilous were the siege-guns and gunboats. But the commander-in-chief had been struck down, and Beauregard, succeeding to supreme responsibility, decided otherwise. Bitterly then he realized the lack of discipline and organization in his army, entailed by the jealousy and ill-timed punctiliousness of Richmond. Victory itself had fatally disordered his lines, and the last hard task of assault had thrown them back in confusion from the almost impregnable position. Better to withdraw with victory than hazard final defeat; for already the sun was in the horizon, and the musket-flashes lit up the woods. The troops were all intermingled, and several brigade commanders had been encountered by the general, who did not know where their brigades were. Since darkness already threatened to leave the army in dense thickets under the enemy's murderous fire, all that was left of the day would be required in withdrawing so disorganized a force. Buell could not have got more than one division along those miry roads to the river. It was a day's work well done: to-morrow should be sealed what had auspiciously begun. Thus reasoning, Beauregard called off the troops just as they were starting on another charge, and ordered them out of range. Then night and rain fell on the field of Shiloh.

During the night Grant's army was heavily reinforced. Three divisions of Buell's army, Nelson's, Crittenden's, and McCook's, had crossed the Tennessee by Monday morning, while Lew Wallace's division of Grant's army, which had been led into a wrong route in its march from Crump's Landing on the previous day, came up at night-fall of Sunday. Twenty-seven thousand fresh troops had thus been added, while Grant's disorganized troops were gradually brought back into fighting trim. There were thus nearly fifty thousand men against about thirty thousand left to the Confederate army. By half-past five the advance began, Nelson and Crittenden marching steadily on the Confederate position. By six o'clock the battle opened, and by seven the advancing Union line reached Beauregard's front, where a determined resistance was encountered.