Scourge of War Boards

Here I am, back from my trip. Let me tell you I soaked in more civil war history in 3 days than most people see in a lifetime. I even had the honor of breakfast with Generals Grant, Buell, Johnston and Beauregard at the beautiful Cherry Mansion in Savannah, TN. I had a fantastic meal at The Catfish Hotel restaurant just north of the Park. I stood in so many historic places, including the 11 square foot iron railroad junction that the entire campaign and half the war in the west was fought over.

As far as the park itself goes. You MUST go. This is not like any other battlefield on the North American continent. This battlefield is cluttered with monuments and tablets. This is for a reason. This battlefield is meant to be studied in detail. This is not Gettysburg with its touristy driving tour. This isn't Antietam with it's gently rolling and clear fields. This is Shiloh, and Shiloh is a merciless swamp hell. Even the high ground is wet. It is the first week of April. I saw what the soliders saw in exact detail. You will see them as well because I took each every picture with the thought to examining the tactical situation from both sides. You will see the Hornets nest from every angle possible. I spent two full days from sunup to sundown stalking these fields and snapped over 150 photographs that I will share with you over the next week or so as I gather together my notes, so that I can give you a full overview of the battle from start to finish.

I stayed in beautiful Corinth, MS. The center of the entire conflict. The town is a bit larger. But has saved every bit of important civil war era history. One of the most amazing things I saw were the breastworks that surrounded the town, converting it into an armed camp. The earthworks were constructed of foldable wicker baskets a little taller than waist high that was filled with dirt. I instantly made the connection, HESCO barriers! The Confederate Army used wicker HESCOS for entrenching Corinth.

The Civil War Interpretive center at Corinth is hands down one of the best, if not the best, civil war museum in the nation. I was blown away. If you are a progressive with soft sensibilities do not go to Corinth. You will not like all of what you will see and read. The Confederates are not treated as traitorous monsters, but rather brave, if misguided people. They made sure to mention that 78% of the town of Corinth was against secession, but once the event occurred, the town threw in its lot and went to war. Not that any of the 1400 residents of the time(400 slave) had much choice. Guess what? Population today is 14,000 white and 4000 black residents in the town today. There were bits and pieces that attempted to make a half hearted attempt at progressive sensibilities but the implication is clear. The Union were invaders and occupiers who brought a lot of pain, death and misery in their wake in exchange for slave freedom.

Corinth was a beautiful town for a mere 1400 people in the 19th century. Bring an army in and it is instantly transformed into a disease ridden, swampy hell. Today most of the swamps are drained and turned into livestock fields. But back then there was NO WATER. None. Both sides despised Corinth, as it was described as "One vast field hospital" constantly filled to the limit with sick and wounded men. They dug wells 10-12 feet deep and still only got a brackish, milky looking substance that horses wouldn't drink a drop of. But the men did out of desperation. I saw such puddles of water all over the place and any modern person drinking it would probably need hospitalization within a few hours. Yet these men drank this stuff for weeks, even when their horses died from thirst rather than touch it.

I intend to be very detailed with this photo tour, so this will take several days or a week to post all the pics with all the notes. I took a picture of every display in the Visitor Center at Shiloh. Which is actually quite small for such a huge battle. I had a blast talking with the rangers, the older ones are extremely educated on the battle and love to talk about Civil war history. It is quite obvious they love the park, and are extremely dilligent in its care. This park is in no danger of disappearing, appears decently funded, and has 650 monuments and tablets detailing the spot of every single regiment, in every single field and wood, in 2 hour increments. You literally can follow the tablets of a single regiment from beginning to end(usually they end in the hornets nest!) I even got "over the barrel" shots from many of the most important batteries. I have a photospread "Shaver's Brigade vs Hickenlooper's Battery" in the Hornet's Nest. The Bloody Pond(more of a puddle really).

I even got rare pictures of the far let flank, which I accidentally stumbled on near the Bloody Pond when I wandered into the woods about 50 yards to take a leak and as I'm draining myself on a tree I look out and naother 25 yards away are a line of monuments(most monuments represent the exact spot a regimental standard was planted at the time the tablet on the monument says. I found a beautiful monument to a brave Ohio brigade that held here for 3 hours before falling back due to the pressure. This entire flank is tied about 200 yards into the thick woods across the Eastern Corinth road from the Bloody Pond.

So, here in this post I will provide you with the pictures of the Visitor center displays. I did the best I could to get the print readable and the artifacts visible, but the artifacts are the typical fare one finds in all battlefields. Musket balls and other crap that kills people.

The Battle of Shiloh began on April 6th, 1862 in the far southern section of the field. As maps are quite easily available online I will not include any. I carried with me a detailed topographical and monumentation map one can purchase either in Corinth, or in the Bookstore at Shiloh for 9.95. It is entirely worth it to have the monument key. I highly recommend following this tour with a detailed map of Shiloh so you can understand what you are seeing.

I will liberally apply quotes from Reed's famous book on the battle detailing the unit movements, and then show the marker photos and panoramic shots of the field.

We begin our tour in the far south of the field. Several miles SW of the Landing in a sector consisting of Fraley Field, Wood Field and Seay Field:

From Reed:

"Major Hardcastle with the Third Mississippi, on picket at the corner of two fields one-fourth mile in advance of the main line, was attacked at 4.55 Sunday morning by a reconnoitering party sent out by General Prentiss. Hardcastle fought the party until 6.30, when the brigade advanced to his support and following the reconnoitering party moved directly forward to the attack of the Union camps, which was reached at 9 a.m."









Facing North into Fraley Field From Wood Field. Behind me is the entire rebel army. In front of me, some skirmishers.



The opposite view, from the Yank skirmish line towards Wood Field. Out of that treeline came the rebel army behind the skirmish line.

In the photograph above depicting the view from the Yankee Skirmish line. one notices a woodline on the left stretching all the way from wood field, to directly in front of you. Skirmishers infiltrated up the wood line an attempt to flank the Yanks at the base of Fraley Field. Instead, they ran into reinforcements sent out into the field next door just on the other side of the woodline to the left. This field is Seay field.

First I show you the view from the union side looking into that woodline from the opposite side.






I now provide you with a view from the Confederate skirmishers, out of the woodline towards union lines. Behind that hill, would have been a vast tent city, the union camps scattered over 5000 acres.

We now have covered the initial skirmishing. Now the real attack began as the Rebels swept aside the skirmishers from the SW corner of the field and moved forward into the Union camps. All the battlefield was a vast tent city scattered throughout the woods, along the sides of the roads, and in the fields on high ground where the HQ's tents were kept. The Rebels swept into the Union camps like a tide, scattering the first units they came across encamped near a freshwater spring called Rhea Spring. The field is Rhea Field. On a prominent rise, in the northern corner of the field. A brave man named Waterhouse poured highly effective fire into the rebel lines. Forcing them to break around his camp and avoid it and slowing down the rebel advance long enough for Peabody to form some semblance of a defense.

From Reed:

" The left of Wood's brigade struck the front of the Fifty-third Ohio camp, its right extending into the camps of Peabody's brigade. The left wing, Twenty-seventh Tennessee, by a movement to the right, avoided the camp of the Fifty-third Ohio, which was being swept by the fire of Waterhouse's battery, while the right passed directly through a part of Peabody's camp."

I give you.. Waterhouse's Battery



I give you a testament to Waterhouse's effectiveness. Halfway through the field one finds this:



This is a burial trench, one of five known, where the confederate dead were buried. This trench lies at the edge of a woodline today, but that is because the forest in the last 150 years has retaken half of Rhea field. I explored deeper into the field, but could not reach the other end because a 20 feet deep steepsided creekbed cut the field in half. I climbed into the creekbed and poked around in the gravel hoping to find an artifact, but the fact is that this area is infested with many venomous snakes and I could very easily have lifted the wrong rock and ended up with a trip to the hospital. So I scaled back up the clay bank. Here are other shots from near Waterhouse's Battery. This entire field was a camp, with Waterhouse in the center. Some resistance was made here. I have shots of a few red CSA tablets.



This is a view from the top of the rise about 100 yards south of waterhouses battery facing into the treelines surrounding Rhea field. That red post is actually a marker for a confederate regiment that was foolish enough to storm Waterhouse. They're remains are probably in the trench now. But Waterhouse held on and eventually fell back having lost a couple guns.

Here now we move to Spain's Field. The field lies 300 yards South of Prentiss' Camps. Here Prentiss' Second Brigade formed up in double line formation and took up a defensive position on a solid rise just above the woodline to the South where Chalmers and Gladden were marching out of, a massive force intent on destroying the Unon camps.

From Reed:

"The Eighteenth Wisconsin arrived on the field on Saturday afternoon and went at once into camp, but did not get into the morning report of that day and are not included in Miller's present for duty. The brigade was formed for battle Sunday morning at 6 o'clock 300 yards in front of its camp, at south side of Spain Field, where it was attacked by Gladden and Chalmers at 8 a.m. and was driven back into camp, and at 9 a.m. was compelled to abandon its camp. Parts of the Eighteenth Wisconsin and Eighteenth Missouri, about 300 men, formed with Prentiss at his third position and remained with him until captured at 5:30 p.m. the Sixty-first Illinois passed beyond or through Hurlbut's line and was in reserve behind that division all day Sunday, except about an hour when it relieved another regiment in front line."

In this spread, look closely at the markers. I intentionally took these photos to show the double line formation in action. Each tablet represents a regimental standard.

The woodline as seen from the front two regiments:





The View from the rear of the brigade:

We now move back up the Sherman road a half mile or so to the Shiloh Church. The church was surrounded by tents. There was some battle here, but most of the men fled smartly to the north another half mile where Sherman set up his first real defensive line on the far right at Woolfe's Field, which we will come too next. Here are the pics of Shiloh Church, old and new. It is still an active, attended church, I was even lucky enough to get pics of some Amish workmen repairing the new church.







This photo is the far right flank area of the Shiloh Church sector. Here an Ohio regiment was routed and forced back to Woolfe's field by a Tennessee Regiment.



This view is looking east. Shiloh Church is just off to the left, that is Sherman Road crossing South to North(right to left).

We now move back to Sherman's Second Line of Defense at Woolfe's Field. This field changed hands several times throughout the day.

From Reed:

"This brigade of four regiments was encamped(2nd Brigade, 4 Div), with its left in Woolf Field, in the following order of regiments from left to right: Forty-fifth Illinois, Forty-eighth Illinois, Twentieth Illinois, Eleventh Illinois. It formed line of battle on its parade ground Sunday morning, April 6, 1862, and at about 8 a.m. moved out, first to the front, but immediately afterwards to the left, and formed along the Corinth road, its left at the northwest corner of the Review field, its right near the crossroads, Burrows's battery at the center. In this position the brigade was fiercely attacked by Wood's brigade of Hardee's corps and Stewart's brigade of Polk's corps. It withstood the attack from about 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., when it fell back about 700 yards and re-formed at right angles to the center of its camp. It held this position for a short time and then fell back to Jones Field, where it rallied and in conjunction with other troops recaptured its camp at noon."

Here is a view down the front line of 2nd Brigade, 4th Div in Woolfe Field:



Veatch's Brigade in the rear, along with Burrow's Battery, and my finger.



The fight raged and the brave Illinosians were forced back to the final defense line Sherman had at Jones field. Here we have Jones field from a battery on the hill in the rear. All those tablets are regiments that were lined up by Sherman and McClernand and then driven south into those woods against the Confederates and successfully took back it's camps at Woolfe field at great cost. There is a confederate burial trench there at Woolfe field. Round tablets indicate 2nd day activity, these cannon batteries were vital in Grants great counteroffensive on April 7th.

Now we move to the far left of the battlefield where Stuart's Brigade consisting of two Ohio regiments and an Illinois regiment attempted the hold the line, but were driven back into the woods. One regiment fled to the river where it was picked up by a riverboat. The other two

From Reed:

"This brigade, of three regiments, was encamped at the junction of Hamburg and Purdy road with the Hamburg and Savannah road in the following order from left to right: Fifty-fifth Illinois, Fifty-fourth Ohio, Seventy-first Ohio; a company from each regiment on picket, one at Lick Creek Ford, two on Bark road. These pickets gave warning, about 8 a.m. April 6, 1862, of the approach of the enemy. Stuart formed his brigade on regimental color lines, but finding that he was exposed to artillery fire from batteries on bluff south of Locust Grove Creek, and obeying orders to guard Lick Creek Ford, he moved, at 10 a.m. to his left, placing the Fifty-fifth Illinois next to right, and the Seventy-first Ohio with its right behind the left of the Fifty-fifth Illinois camp. Chalmers placed his brigade in line on the bluff south of Locust Grove Creek, and, after clearing Stuart's camps with his artillery, moved across the creek and attacked the Fifty-fourth Ohio and Fifty-fifth Illinois in position. After a short conflict Stuart withdrew to a ridge running due east from his headquarters. The right, Seventy-first Ohio, occupying the building used as Stuart's headquarters, was here attacked by the right of Jackson's brigade and very soon retired, leaving a captain and 50 men prisoners. One part of the regiment under the major passed down a ravine to the Tennessee River, where they were picked up by a gunboat; another part retired to the Landing where they joined the brigade at night. The Fifty-fourth Ohio and Fifty-fifth Illinois, with Stuart in command, successfully was exhausted and they were obliged to fall back to the Landing, where they reformed at the Log House, the Fifty-fourth Ohio in what is now the cemetery, the Fifty-fifth Illinois to its right supporting Silfversparre's battery, where they were engaged in resisting Chalmers' Sunday evening attack. Stuart was wounded on Sunday, and was succeeded on Monday by Col. T. Kilby Smith, who, with the Fifty-fourth Ohio and Fifty-fifth Illinois, joined Sherman's command and fought on right next to Lew. Wallace all day."

Now we move to the meat and potatoes of Shiloh. The stunning all day resistance by the remnants of Prentiss' Division in the Hornets Nest/Peach Orchard/Bloody Pond sector!

The Hornet's Nest is divided into 3 areas.

The left flank would be the Peach Orchard, the section of sunken road behind it and the Manse cabin all of which border the northern end of Sarah Bell's Old Cotton field. The center sector would be the oak thicket and the sunken road that passes through it, what is primarily considered "The Hornet's Nest" proper, and then the right sector which consists of the Duncan Field, and the sunken road behind it. As an adjunct to the fighting, I will include "The Death of A.S. Johnston" as he was killed just a few hundred yards away from the Peach Orchard/Bloody Pond. After examining his wounding/death site in detail, my personal conclusion is that he was most likely hit by one of his own men. The area where he was hit is a good 400-500 yards from the Peach Orchard and while it is conceivable a stray union round flew that distance and hit him in the back of the knee, once you see how the battlefield is set up, you may or may not agree. I welcome the debate!

First, we will start with the Confederate view of the left flank of the Union line. The Peach Orchard. This view is an "over the barrel" shot from either Harper's confederate battery on the far southern edge of Sarah Miller's Old Cotton Field.







One of the most interesting things I found as I followed the tablets was the personal story of Shaver's Brigade, consisting of the 2nd and 7th Arkansas and the 3rd Confederate States Infantry. This unit can rightly be considered "The Stonewall Brigade" of the West. It was involved in almost every major action at Shiloh, and the tablets for these regiments can be found all over the heaviest fighting. It began Shiloh with 905 Officers and men. Only 380 made it back to Corinth. The 7th Ark went on be destroyed again at Perryville, where it was combined with the 6th Arkansas to form the 6th/7th Arkansas Regiment and went on to fight at Chickamauga and other battles.

Shaver's Brigade was heavily involved in the Hornet's Nest in all the major sectors. I'll let Reed describe:

"This brigade moved forward at 6.30 a.m. Sunday meeting with little resistance until within one-half mile of the Union camps. Here Swett's and Harper'sa batteries took position on the right near Eastern Corinth road and engaged the union batteries (Hickenlooper's and Munch's). A charge was ordered and Peabody's camp was captured and his men pursued to a ravine and to an old field (Barnes's). The Third Confederate continuing the pursuit beyond the ravine became detached from its brigade and was engaged at Hornets' Nest soon after 9 a.m. Colonel Shaver reorganized his command and was ordered to make change of front to the left, in conjunction with Wood's left wheel, to attack a camp (Raith's). Before completing the movement he was ordered to reform and move by left flank one-half milea to an old farm, from which he attacked the enemy (Hare's brigade) behind a large field. The left regiments passed through this field, driving back Hare's brigade and occupying the ground one and one-halfb hours. The right of the brigade passed to the right of the Review field and became engaged with Sweeny's and Tuttle's brigades and was exposed to a heavy cross fire from the Union batteries in the rear of Tuttle. Swett's battery took position on Shaver's right and engaged those batteries. General Stewart took command of Hindman's troops, consisting of Shaver's brigade and the Sixteenth Alabama and Fifty-fifth Tennessee of Wood's brigade, and placing the Fourth Tennessee on the left of Shaver moved directly east from the northwest corner of Review Field to Duncan House and attacked the troops behind Duncan Field. Stewart was repulsed, and Shaver's brigade retired about 1 mile to a camp to replenish ammunition. Between 2 and 3 o'clock Shaver's brigade made another attack at the Hornets' nest and was again repulsed. In this charge Lieutenant Colonel Dean, Seventh Arkansas, was killed within 50 paces of the front of the Fourteenth Iowa. The brigade then fell back and was not again engaged on Sunday. It retired a little farther to the rear and bivouacked for the night. On Monday the brigade formed on the Bark road. After some time the Second and Sixth Arkansas advanced to the left with General Cheatham, where an attack was made about 12 m. and some guns captured, but were soon retaken, and the Confederates driven back in disorder. In attempting to rally his force Colonel Shaver was rendered senseless by the explosion of a shell near him, and his command disorganized. The Seventh Arkansas was in support of a battery on Monday and later in the day became engaged on the right. The Third Confederate was detached to the right on Monday. Swett's (Mississippi) battery, after its participation in the attack at Hornet's Nest on Sunday, was placed by General Ruggles in line of batteries on the east side of Review field, where it was supported by the One hundred and fifty-fourth Tennessee. No record of Swett's battery in engagement on Monday."

So, here is the union side of things from the Peach Orchard, looking across towards Harper's Battery over the barrel of a Union Battery(Possibly Munch's, I forget)





View from behind the split rail fence through the Peach Orchard.

We must now come to the sad tale of the death of General Albert Sydney Johnston. The man Jefferson Davis said "If Johnston isn't a General, then we have no General."

Lee was still an obscure nobody holding the fort at Harper's Ferry. Johnston was the Confederacy's First Great Hope. He died on the battlefield, struck by a .577 caliber minie ball in the back of the knee and it cut an artery. Unfortunately I seem to have lost the photo of the front of Johnston's monument itself. But this Monument marks the spot where Johnson took the bullet. You may ask "How do you know that?" Well I was assured by the Park Ranger, that when the park commission brought out the veterans and started marking these spots, if they were not absolutely, positively sure, with eyewitness corroboration about a tablet or monument location.. they didn't place it.

So, here we are looking past Johnstons monument toward the Peach Orchard and Manse Cabin and Sarah Bell's Old Cotton Field. Johnston had just rallied together most of a division and had just ordered them forward. Two full brigades of Rebs came screaming out of the left of the frame, assaulting the Peach Orchard.





Now if you look, you may see why I think Johnston was killed by a bullet from one of his own men. Look at the distances involved. According to the map it is a distance of just shy of a quarter mile. Through trees, in a direction away from where the heaviest assaults were coming from.

I think Johnston was hit by his own men.





So after Johnston was wounded, he was taken down into a small ravine just behind the monument and laid against the tree. The tree is gone now, though the stump was there until just about 10 years ago according to the ranger.