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| Battle of Shiloh | |
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'Civil War' segment written in July, 1998 by Rich Wallace |
The Battle of Shiloh (also known as
Pittsburgh Landing) took place in the hills of Tennessee along the Tennessee River on
April 6 and 7, 1862. General Grant and his 42,000 man army had camped there. Confederate
General Albert Sidney Johnston moved toward Grant over the objections of his staff, who
were concerned Grant would soon get reinforcements. Johnston stated, "I would
fight him if he were a million." The rebels, on the march and without food for 24 hours, caught Grant's army by surprise. Eight of ten Union soldiers at Shiloh had never been in a battle, and pandemonium was the reaction. One sergeant recalled a soldier running from the front shouting, "Give them hell, boys, I gave them hell as long as I could!" For the first time, many federal soldiers heard the 'rebel yell' and witnessed the courage of the gray-clad fighters. A Union veteran recalled them coming like 'maddened demons.' Another said that it "seemed almost barbarous to fire on brave men pressing forward so heroically to the mouth of hell." Portions of the battlefield known as the 'sunken road' the 'hornet's nest,' and the 'peach orchard' were scenes of vicious fighting. The 20th Ohio was pressed into service as part of General Lewis Wallace's division. Dwight later recalled: "The ear was oppressed with the agony of sound. Thousands of muskets poured forth a constant roar of fierce wrath. Hundreds of cannon thundered defiance and death. Fragments of words of command were drowned by the clank and clatter of new batteries hurrying into position to the clarion call of the bugle. It was a swift swirling tempest of mad action, beyond imagination and indescribable." After the first day's battle, the men of the 20th lay on the bare ground, listening to the cries of the wounded in front of them. None dared to help those men in distress, as each movement brought a volley of fire from the enemy. One Union soldier later remembered: "I could hear those poor fellows crying for water...God heard them, for the heavens opened up and the rains came." Dwight and his men then slept in the mud. Throughout the night, federal gunboats shelled the enemy camps. Misery prevailed on both sides. That night, General Sherman said to Grant, "Well, General Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" |