| The next day, General
Buell arrived with the Army of the Ohio and 25,000 fresh troops. After another day of
fighting, the Confederates fell back. The battle could hardly be called a victory for
either side. Shelby County resident William Dalton published his recollections of the
battle's aftermath in the "Shelby County Democrat" on March 1, 1907. His
sister's husband, Miller Berry of Piqua, was killed. Dalton saw "dead men lying in
all conceivable shapes all along the line. Several of our regiment had been killed in
their beds the night before. Dead Johnnies lay all around our camp." All of the major Shelby County regiments saw action at Shiloh. Thirty-five local men were killed, wounded or captured there. Shelby County resident and 20th Ohio soldier Harlan Hall, who left his job as a school teacher to fight, was one of the men killed. To Lt. Dwight, the battle offered one consolation. The men of the 20th found enough new Confederate Enfield rifles (made in England for the rebels) to replace their own weapons. One hundred thousand men had fought at Shiloh. Nearly one in four was a casualty. Afterwards, Grant tried to put things in perspective. "Up to the Battle of Shiloh, I, as well as thousands of other citizens, believed that the rebellion against the government would collapse suddenly and soon if a decisive victory could be gained over any of its armies...but (afterward) I gave up all idea of saving the union except by complete conquest." |
 General Lewis Wallace [Back]
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