Samuel Cooper to Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer, September 14, 1861

RICHMOND, September 14, 1861.

General ZOLLICOFFER, Knoxville, Tenn.:

Your letter of 10th received.* The military considerations clearly indicate the forward movement which you propose. The political condition of Kentucky affects the determination of this question. Of that you are better informed than ourselves, and as you are supposed to have conferred with General A. S. Johnston, the matter is left to your discretion.

S. COOPER,        

Adjutant and Inspector General.

______________

* Not found; but see Zollicoffer to Johnston, September 16, 194.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 190-1

General Albert Sidney Johnston: Order No. 1, September 15, 1861

ORDERS, No. 1}

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT NO. 2,        

Nashville, Tenn., September 15, 1861.

I. By virtue of Special Orders, No. 149, of September 10, 1861, from the Adjutant and Inspector General's Office at Richmond, the undersigned assumes command of the military department thereby created.

II. Department of orders, Lieut. Col. W. W. Mackall, assistant adjutant-general and chief of staff.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

A. S. JOHNSTON,        

General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 407

Gustavus A. Henry to Jefferson Davis, September 15, 1861

CLARKSVILLE, September 15, 1861.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS, Richmond, Va.:

I am just from Nashville, where some dissatisfaction prevails at the action of General Polk in taking Columbus, Ky. Whether it was altogether politic to take possession I need not say, but it will be ruinous to order him back. Let him advance his columns into Kentucky, to Bowling Green and Muldraugh's Hill if necessary, and I predict he will not leave an enemy behind him south of that place in two weeks.

In confidence I say to you the service here needs a general at its head in whom the Army and the country have unlimited confidence. Albert S. Johnston first, and Buckner and Gus. W. Smith as officers under him, would give such confidence as would insure success. I do not even insinuate that any one now in office should be displaced. I do not think they ought, but that the persons above named should be added to the list.

The neutrality of Kentucky has been all the time a cloak to enable the Lincoln party there to hide their real design to arm the friends of Lincoln and to disarm the Southern Rights party. We ought to strike now. A step backward would be fatal, in my opinion. We cannot long avoid a conflict with the paid and bought friends of Lincoln in Kentucky, and the fight might as well come off now as at any other time. If it is to be done, it should be done quickly.

Ever your friend and obedient servant,

G. A. HENRY.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 192-3

Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer to General Albert Sidney Johnston, September 16, 1861

KNOXVILLE, September 16, 1861.

General A. S. JOHNSTON, Memphis, Tenn.:

SIR: On the 10th instant I apprised Adjutant-General Cooper that I expected on the 12th to have three regiments at Cumberland Ford and three other regiments there as soon as they could be withdrawn from other posts, and I added:

The country beyond Cumberland Gap, toward Nelson's Camp, is poor and hostile. To make secure our line of communication with the sources of our supplies, it is essential to strengthen the positions at Cumberland Gap, Cumberland Ford, and the intervening passes of the Three Log Mountains. This may be accomplished, I trust, in a few days after the six infantry regiments get to the Ford, when we will be ready to make a forward movement.

On the 13th I received dispatches from Governor Harris and General Buckner, urging me to arrest my movement at the State line, if possible. These dispatches came too late, reaching me after my return from London. I replied to Governor Harris by telegraph, requesting him to transmit to Governor Magoffin the following note:

• Brigadier-General Felix K. Zollicoffer to Governor Beriah Magoffin, September 14, 1861

Last night General Cooper telegraphed me in reference to my suggestion of the 10th, that, after strengthening the mountain passes, “we will be ready to make a forward movement,” as follows:

The military considerations clearly indicate the forward movement which you propose. The political condition of Kentucky affects the determination of the question. Of that you are better informed than ourselves; and as you are supposed to have conferred with General A. S. Johnston, the matter is left to your discretion.

There are probably by this time four regiments at Cumberland Ford, and a fifth at the Gap, 15 miles this side. A sixth will probably be moved up by the 21st or 22d; and if the state of things in Greene County, where there has been some excitement, is such as I suppose, I am not able yet to indicate within what time proper defenses in the mountain passes can be completed, but every effort will be made to push the work forward vigorously. I hope to go there to-morrow. Would have gone earlier, but have been detained by pressing necessities here. I meant to say to General Cooper that we would be ready to make a forward movement, should it be deemed advisable.

I find myself at a loss, under present condition of things, how to obtain reliable information of the strength and movements of the enemy. I will endeavor to place before you promptly information I may receive and all circumstances enabling you to understand our condition. I inclose the most perfect report we are now able to make of the various corps, scattered as they now are at distant posts.*

Very respectfully,

F. K. ZOLLICOFFER,        

Brigadier-General.

_______________

* Not found.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 4 (Serial No. 4), p. 194-5

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Sunday, April 6, 1862

It is now move ing [sic]—a beautiful Sabbath morning. The dews have gone to heaven and the stars have gone to God; the sky is all inlaid with crimson, far away to the east. From behind the eastern hills the sun is peering; it is moving on its path. But ere it has long illumed the sky, war's dread tocsin is heard; the sullen roar of artillery breaks upon our ears, telling to us that the storm-king of battle would ride upon the banks of the Tennessee to-day. The army of the Tennessee springs to arms to meet the advancing columns of Albert Sidney Johnson. The pennons are now flying. Major Rowett and the Seventh are quickly buckled for the conflict. Her old, tattered and shot-riven flag goes flying through the woods, and the regiment is soon in the conflict. Their position is now behind a rail fence. Oh! the angry tempest that rolls around here! Belching cannons, shotted to the muzzle, are now plowing deep lanes in the Union ranks. How can we describe the sound of a storm of grape and canister, cutting their hellish paths through serried ranks of human beings. It is impossible. Many are the storms flying around the Seventh now. Thicker and faster they come, but those noble men who bore that riddled flag over Fort Donelson's walls, struggle on. Many have breathed quickly, and, trampled under their comrades' feet, have rolled in bloody agonies and now lie in quiet eternal slumber. The mighty armies are now struggling—struggling desperately for the life or death of a nation.

Fiercer and fiercer rages the battle. The great Grant is moving on the field with a mighty power. But fearful odds are against us, and the army of the Tennessee is compelled to yield position after position. The Seventh has been forced to yield many points to-day; at one time being so far in the advance, we were left without support, and had it not been for the quick perception of our gallant Major, we would have been cut off and captured. Forming columns by divisions, we retreated from our critical position, and were compelled to fall back across an open field. It was a trying time. The harsh, fierce barking of the dogs of war made the earth tremble, as if in the midst of a convulsion. But there was no confusion in the Seventh-no panic there. Led by the brave Rowett, they moved firmly, as if to say, that shot-pierced flag, tattered and torn, shall not go down to-day. Major Rowett, with the aid of Captain Monroe, acting Major now form a new line with the Seventh. War's ruthless machine is moving with a relentless force.

It is now past noon. Confusion reigns; brave men are falling like rain drops. All seems dark—seems that the Union army will be crushed by this wild sweep of treason. But on the crippled army of the Tennessee struggles; they still keep the flag up. It is now four o'clock. Step by step the army is being driven back towards the river. The old Union banner seems to be drooping in the wrathful storm, but by an almost superhuman effort the tide is checked. For a while there is a lull in the battle, but only to make preparations for the last desperate assault-an assault in which the enemy expect to see the old flag come down to their feet.

Buell is said to be approaching; he is hourly expected. Grant is now seen moving with a care-worn countenance, He moves amid the carnage to form his last grand line one-fourth mile from the Tennessee, where the advance is now driven. Grant's last line is formed. It is a line of iron, a line of steel, a wall of stout hearts, as firm, as powerful as Napoleon under like reverses ever formed in the days of his imperial power. It seems almost impossible for such a line to be formed at this hour 50 compact. On every available spot of earth an iron-lipped monster frowns. It is a trying moment, for Grant knows and his army knows that should this line be broken, the battle would be lost and the proud flag would be compelled to fall. At half-past four o'clock Grant dashes through the woods. His voice rings out: “They come! they come! Army of the Tennessee stand firm!” A breathless silence pervades these serried ranks, until broken by the deafening crash of artillery. The last desperate struggle on Sunday evening now commences. One hundred brazen guns are carrying terror and death across Shiloh's plain. The Seventh is at its place; every officer and soldier is at his post; Rowett and Monroe are at their stations, now on foot; (Rowett's horse killed in former charge; Monroe's disabled.) All the company officers are in their places, cheering and encouraging their gallant men, and as we gaze upon the bristling bayonets that are gleaming along the Seventh's line, we know that every brawny arm that is beneath them will be bared to shield the old flag. The infantry are clashing now, but this line of stout hearts stands firm. The traitor hosts grow desperate; the earth trembles; the sun is hid behind the wrathful smoke, but amid all the deafening battle elements of the darkened field, the flag and its defenders stand. Down beneath its shadow brave men are falling to close their eyes in glory. The storm still increases in its sweeping power. About five o'clock the issue becomes doubtful; each seems to hold the balance, and like Napoleon at Waterloo, who prayed that night or Blucher would come, so we prayed that night or the army of Ohio would come. About this time, Albert Sidney Johnson poured out his life-blood upon the altar of a vain ambition. At that fatal hour the enemy's lines waver, and the sun goes down with the army of the Tennessee standing victorious on their last great line.

Night comes, and with it Buell comes, but only in time to witness the closing scene on Sunday evening. We thanked God for the arrival of the army of the Ohio, but we never thanked God for Don Carlos Buell when he rode across the Tennessee and spoke lightly of the great Grant, who had successfully stemmed the wildest storm of battle that ever rolled upon the American continent.

The sable curtains have now fallen, closing to our eyes the terrible scene. Soon it commences to rain. Dark, dark night for the army of the Tennessee. Many brave men are sleeping silently. They have fought their last battle. Fearful, desolating war has done a desperate work. Noble men have thrown themselves into the dread ordeal, and passed away. The human pen will fail to picture the battle-field of Shiloh as it presented itself on Sunday night. The Seventh, tired and almost exhausted, drops down on the ground, unmindful of the falling rain, to rest themselves. Ere it was noon some of the Seventh had already lain down to rest, and ere it was night others laid down, but it was an eternal rest-the soldier's last slumber. Disastrous war has wrapped its winding sheet around the cold form of many a fond mother's boy, and before many days there will be weeping in the lonely cottage homes; weeping for the loved and lost who are now sleeping beneath the tall oaks on the banks of the Tennessee. About the noble men of the Seventh who fell to-day, we will speak hereafter; we shall not forget them. How could we forget them, when they have played their part so well in the great tragedy?

SOURCES: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 49-54

Diary of Private Daniel L. Ambrose: Saturday, April 5, 1862

Nothing of note has occurred to relieve the monotony of camp life. There is now a large army concentrated here. Far away on the hills and in the ravines the tents and the soldiers are seen. Up to this time we have had consid[er]able rain. The roads and by-ways into the camps are cut up terribly. It is with difficulty that the Seventh keeps above mud and water. Vague rumors are afloat this evening to the effect that Albert Sidney Johnson is moving towards the Tennessee with his entire command; however, not much credit is attached to it. But we may anticipate days of desperate strife—days of fire and carnage in Tennessee, for no doubt there has been or is being a concentration of the rebel armies under Johnson and Beauregard, with headquarters at Corinth, Mississippi, twenty-five miles from Pittsburg Landing. Their hopes are no doubt beating high for revenge upon Grant's army, in consideration of the blow wielded against them, in those stormy days of battle around Fort Donelson.

SOURCES: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 47-8

General Albert Sidney Johnston to Judah P. Benjamin, February 8, 1862

HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT, 

Bowling Green, Ky., February 8, 1862.

Hon. J.P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of War:

SIR: No reliable particulars of the loss of Fort Henry have yet reached me. This much, however, is known, that nearly all of the force at Fort Henry retreated to Fort Donelson, and it is said that General Tilghman and about 80 officers and men surrendered in the fort.

The capture of that fort by the enemy gives them the control of the navigation of the Tennessee River, and their gunboats are now ascending the river to Florence. Operations against Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland, are about to be commenced, and that work will soon be attacked. The slight resistance at Fort Henry indicates that the best open earthworks are not reliable to meet successfully a vigorous attack of iron-clad gunboats, and, although now supported by a considerable force, I think the gunboat of the enemy will probably take Fort Donelson without the necessity of employing their land force in co-operation, as seems to have been done at Fort Henry.

Our force at Fort Donelson, including the force from Fort Henry and three regiments of General Floyd's command, is about 7,000 men, not well armed or drilled, except Heiman's regiment and the regiments of Floyd's command. General Floyd's command and the force from Hopkinsville is arriving at Clarksville, and can, if necessary, reach Donelson in four hours by steamers which are there.

Should Fort Donelson be taken, it will open the route to the enemy to Nashville, giving them the means of breaking the bridges and destroying the ferry-boats on the river as far as navigable.

The occurrence of the misfortune of losing the fort will cut off the communication of the force here under General Hardee from the south bank of the Cumberland. To avoid the disastrous consequences of such an event I ordered General Hardee yesterday to make, as promptly as it could be done, preparations to fall back to Nashville and cross the river.

The movements of the enemy on my right flank would have made a retrograde in that direction to confront the enemy indispensable in a short time. But the probability of having the ferriage of this army corps across the Cumberland intercepted by the gunboats of the enemy admits of no delay in making the movement.

Generals Beauregard and Hardee are, equally with myself, impressed with the necessity of withdrawing our force from this line at once.

With great respect, your obedient servant,

A. S. JOHNSTON,    

General, C. S. Army.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 863-4

Judah P. Benjamin to General Albert Sidney Johnston, February 8, 1862

WAR DEPARTMENT,         

Richmond, February 8, 1862.

General A. SIDNEY JOHNSTON,

Bowling Green:

SIR: The condition of your department in consequence of the largely superior forces of the enemy has filled us with solicitude, and we have used every possible exertion to organize some means for your relief.

With this view the following orders have been issued to-day and the following measures adopted:

1st. We have ordered to Knoxville three Tennessee regiments—Vaughn's, Maney's, and Bate's—the First Georgia Regiment and four regiments from General Bragg's command to be forwarded by him. This will give you in East Tennessee the following force, viz: As above, eight regiments. Add Gillespie's Tennessee, one regiment; Vaughn's North Carolina, one regiment;* one regiment cavalry; Stovall's battalion and another from North Carolina, together one regiment—total, twelve regiments, besides Churchwell's command at Cumberland Gap, the other forces stationed at different passes by General Zollicoffer, and a number of independent companies.

The whole force in East Tennessee will thus amount, as we think, to at least fifteen regiments, and the President desires that you assign the command to General Buckner.

2d. The formation of this new army for Eastern Tennessee will leave General Crittenden's army (augmented by Chalmers' regiment and two or three batteries of field pieces already sent to him) free to act with your center.

Colonel Chalmers will be nominated to-morrow brigadier-general. You might assign a brigade to him at once.

The President thinks it best to break up the army of General Crittenden, demoralized by its defeat, and that you should distribute the forces composing it among other troops. You can form a new command for General Crittenden, connected with your own corps, in such manner as you may deem best.

General Crittenden has demanded a court of inquiry, and it has been ordered; but from all the accounts which now reach us we have no reason to doubt his skill or conduct in his recent movements, and feel convinced that it is not to any fault of his that the disaster at Somerset is to be attributed.

3d. To aid General Beauregard at Columbus I send orders to General Lovell to forward to him at once five or six regiments of his best  troops at New Orleans.

4th. I have sent to Memphis arms for Looney's regiment; to Knoxville 800 percussion muskets; to Colonel Chalmers 800 Enfield rifles for his regiment, and to you 1,200 Enfield rifles. The Enfield rifles will be accompanied by a full supply of fixed ammunition. They form part of a small cargo recently received by us, and of the whole number (6,000) one-third is thus sent to you, besides which we send 1,600 to Van Dom.

5th. We have called on all the States for a levy of men for the war, and think that in very few weeks we shall be able to give you heavy re-enforcements, although we may not be able to arm them with good weapons. But we have another small cargo of Enfield rifles close by, and hope to have some 10,000 or 12,000 safe in port within the next two or three weeks.

I forgot to say that the rifles already received may not reach you for eight or ten days, as they were introduced at a port quite far south.

I am, your obedient servant,

J. P. BENJAMIN,      

Secretary of War.

_______________

*The records show to Vaughn’s North Carolina regiment.  Probably R. B. Vance’s Twenty-ninth North Carolina.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 7 (Serial No. 7), p. 862-3

The Victory on the Cumberland—The End in Sight

We have reason to believe, if not the certainty, that Fort Donelson has fallen.  After a struggle, desperate on both sides, and, as far as my be judged from the imperfect details which have reached us, creditable to the fighting qualities of both, the post capitulated, and the National colors took the place, on the ramparts, of the rebel rag.  The destruction of life and the lists of wounded are probably largely in excess of those of any previous contest of the war.  It could hardly be otherwise.  The opposing forces were strong in numbers, but while the assailants were more perilously exposed, the defenders, from their very numbers, cooped up as they were in lines where they were helpless to fight, and simply in the way of each other, must have suffered frightfully from the storm of shell and shot hurled upon them from that circumvallation of fire.  It was doubtless the terrible sacrifice of life to which they were subjected within the fort that prompted these daring sorties which the besiegers so gallantly repulsed.

Having this glorious result of the fight, we may well postpone the discussion of details.  With the capture of Fort Donelson, another of those mortal blows recently struck at the heart of the rebellion has been inflicted.  Nor are we to lose sight of the fact that nearly all of these victories come from the command of Gen. HALLECK.  Fort Henry captured, the loyalty of Tennessee brought to light, the surrender if Fort Donelson, the retreat of PRICE, from Springfield, and the report of this morning that CURTIS had overtaken his rear, had seized his baggage-train and more prisoners that he knew what to do with, show with what energy and how victoriously the commander of the Western Department is executing his part of the great programme.  These, with the retreat of JOHNSTON from before BUELL, relieve, practically, both Missouri and Kentucky from the rebel enemy, and lay bare the Tennessee  to the admission of these Union armies which shall bring liberation to its oppressed but loyal people.

While the war in the West is thus drawing to a close, the signs are not less significant in the East.  There is little doubt that in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, our forces are at this moment executing flank movements to the interior, which must effectually isolate the main rebel army in Eastern Virginia from its sources of supply.  It is clearly improbable for the rebels to hold their position at Manassas.  Their retreat must be a question of a few days—perhaps of a few hours.  There is but one reason for the evacuation of Bowling Green that is not valid for the evacuation of Manassas, and it is that no division of the Potomac army has been thrown forward to threaten an attack.  But such a threat is no longer necessary.  The news that Fort Donelson is in National hands; that the Tennessee river is open to our gunboats even to Muscle Shoals in Alabama; that the Cumberland can now be ascended to Nashville; that Memphis is in danger, and that the garrison of Columbus are for all practical purposes prisoners of war, must give that shock to the rebels near Washington which shall leave to its leaders an only alternative of withdrawing their army, or seeing it dissolve.  A retreat will be begun, but where will it end? Nowhere, we conceive short of the Gulf States.  The only pause at Richmond will probably be to witness the gloomy pageant of JEFF. DAVIS inaugurated as President, like a King crowned on his death-bed, or the succession of a Byzantine Emperor, when Byzantium itself was beleaguered and stormed by the Turks.  It will be in the Gulf States that the last stand of the rebels will be attempted.  But there our lines are already drawn tightly about them.  We hold the coast.  The blockade is pinchingly close.  What our gunboats and mortar-boats have done East and West they can do for every river and harbor on the Gulf.  Our troops will escape from the mud and the frosts of the Border States, to a theater of war, where for months to come the temperature is that of our Northern Summer, and where roads are settled, and military movements facile.  Indeed, of the resistance of the desperate traitors can be protracted through the Summer, a campaign in July and August would convey no discomfort to those who have experienced similar heats in our own latitudes; for the steady Southern Summer is far less intolerable that the varying temperatures of the North.

It is no extravagance, therefore, to say the rebellion has culminated.  Its settling must be as the flash of a meteor.  Had the illusory stimulus of the apparent victories of Bull Run and Ball’s Bluff been wanting; and had the certainty of the non-interference of France and England been earlier attained, the result must have been early reached.  After this, it certainly can[no]t be materially postponed.  The monster is already clutched and in his death struggle.

SOURCE: “The Victory on the Cumberland—The End in Sight,” The New York Times, New York, New York, Monday, February 17, 1862, p. 4.

Brigadier-General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, February 21, 1862

Paducah, February 21, 1862

Dearest Ellen,

I have received your letter¹ from St. Louis and I cannot express to you how sorry I am to have caused you that Journey at that time.  I wrote you & telegraphed you the moment I received my orders and did all I could to advise you of my movements, but now that you are at home I trust that the fatigue is over and it is forgotten.  The news of Grants victory must have electrified the whole country.  It certainly was most opportune.  More troops are passing into Kentucky—about 10,000 have arrived today—Six Ohio Regiments without arms, and a division from Green River.  Our next move must be against Columbus.  I have written to Halleck asking as a special favor that he ordered here the four companies of my regiment.  I think he will do it.

You ask me to pardon you—the idea of your asking my pardon—I ought to get on my Knees and implore your pardon for the anxiety & Shame I have caused you.  All I hope for is a chance to recover from the Past—I had a long interview with Buckner today.  I used to Know him well and he frankly told me of many things  which I wanted to Know—He was restrained from doing what I Knew was his purpose and what he ought to have done, but he was restrained by Sidney Johnston.

We are here in the midst of mud and dirt, rains & thaw.  We expect orders every day to move somewhere but no one knows where.

I got your telegraph last night.  I had previously written to Halleck asking him to Send the Battalions of four companies to me here at Paducah from Alton, I don’t know whether he will.  I suppose a large part of the prisoners of war are at Alton and will need Guard.

Give my love to all, and I cant tell now how my thoughts dwell on our dear children & you[.]  I am very busy—

Affectionately

W. T. Sherman

_______________

¹ Not found.

SOURCE: Brooks D. Simpson, Jean V. Berlin, Editors, Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865, p. 192; William Tecumseh Sherman Family Papers, Archives of the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, Box 1, Folder 142, image #’s 03-0026 & 03-0027

General Pierre G. T. Beauregard to Adjutant General Samuel Cooper, April 6, 1862

BATTLE-FIELD OF SHILOH, MISS., April 6,

Via Corinth, Miss., via Chattanooga, Tenn.,  April 7, 1862.

We this morning attacked the enemy in strong position in front of Pittsburg, and after a severe battle of ten hours, thanks be to the Almighty, gained a complete victory, driving the enemy from every position. Loss on both sides heavy, including our commander-in-chief, General A. S. Johnston, who fell gallantly leading his troops into the thickest of the fight.

G. T. BEAUREGARD,         

General, Commanding.

General S. COOPER,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 10, Part 1 (Serial No. 10), p. 384

Review: The Generals of Shiloh

The Generals of Shiloh:

Character in Leadership, April 6-7, 1862

By Larry Tagg,

American Civil War was painted on millions of individual canvasses. You can mix them up to make larger pictures which feature different aspects, different battles, differing sides and can be viewed from different angles.  Rearrange the canvases again and you have a different picture of the war.  The Civil War is an era of American history, that it is so vast with multiple moving parts, it can never be viewed as a single picture.  Students of the Civil War can be inundated with facts about the people, places and events of the war that they can quite literally sometimes get lost in the fog of war. While looking at one person, aspect or event of the war others must fade into the background. Turn around, look left, look right, look up or look down and the canvasses shift again and other canvasses must fade into the background. Sometimes students of the war need a guide to lead them through the shifting fog of 150+ years since the end of the war.

Larry Tagg is our guide through the two-day Battle of Shiloh which took place on April 6 & 7, 1862. His book “The Generals of Shiloh: Character in Leadership, April 6-7, 1862,” brings order out of chaos by focusing on the generals and colonels (acting brigadier-generals), and the divisions, corps and brigades they led.

Arranged as in an order of battle, the book is divided into three parts, one for each of the armies involved in the battle on the Tennessee River: The Army of the Tennessee, The Army of the Ohio, and The Army of the Mississippi. Starting with the commanders of each Army, Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell for the Union and for the Confederacy Albert Sidney Johnston and Pierre G. T. Beauregard, Tagg follows the structure of the armies chains of command in descending order from division (for the Union Army) and corps (for the Confederate Army) to brigade command.

Sixty-six men make up the leadership structure of the rural Tennessee battle, each is featured with a photograph (when available) and a brief biographical sketch highlighting the lives of each man before the battle, and then a brief paragraph outlining what happened to each of them after the battle.  Each biography is then followed by the pre-battle history of their commands and their participation in the battle.  One could make an argument for titling Tagg’s book “The Brigades of Shiloh.”  However here the fog of war envelopes the reader and obscures the larger picture of the battle, as the author leads his readers through the minutia of the movements of each, division, corps and brigade.  Since this is a nonlinear approach the reader can easily get lost while following each command around the battlefield. There are only two maps in the book.  More maps would certainly have made following the generals and their commands around the battlefield easier to follow and understand.  To readers of “The Generals of Shiloh” I would recommend copying the maps in the beginning of the book and use them as a bookmark as you read through the book.

“The Generals of Shiloh” is a great book for those well versed in the Battle of Shiloh.  It should be used as a quick reference guide to the commanders and their commands.  Its table of contents makes it very easy to find any individual in just a few seconds.  Larry Tagg has written a book that is easily read in short spans of time, and would be a fantastic companion book to any narrative history of the battle.

ISBN 978-1611213690, Savas Beatie, © 2017, Hardcover, 312 Pages, Maps, Photographs, End Notes & Critical Bibliography. $32.95.  To Purchase the book click HERE.

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Fessenden Morse: The Battle of Averysboro

March 15, 1865, the day preceding this battle, was cloudy and rainy, the brigade marching about ten miles on a plank road, getting into camp after dark. The camp was in an ancient grave-yard, very damp and disagreeable. Our men had just started fires and were preparing their frugal supper, when a mounted orderly clattered up to my shelter tent with orders for the regiment to be ready to march at once. Our brigade was soon in motion through the pitchy darkness, over the most execrable of mud roads. We marched only about five miles, but it was nearly twelve o'clock when we filed off the road into a pine thicket, and lay down on the wet ground for the remainder of the night. During the night march we learned that Kilpatrick's cavalry had encountered a force of the enemy, and that we had been ordered up to relieve one of his brigades. This force was General Hardee's command, which had been halted in a strong position for the purpose of holding Sherman's advance, to give time for Johnson to concentrate his army at some point beyond. About seven A. M., I received orders to form the regiment on the left of the brigade, throw out skirmishers and engage the enemy, and was told that my left would be supported by cavalry. The ground in our front, over which we advanced during the day, was a pine swamp, the water in some places being a foot or more in depth.

As soon as the regiment had taken its position, I ordered. Captain J. I. Grafton, who commanded the left flank company, to take his company and the one next on his right, and deploy them in front of the regiment. The skirmishers were at once engaged, and we came under a well-directed, scattering fire. Captain Grafton was just placing his men in position when he was wounded in the leg and started to the rear, but when within a few yards of the place where I was standing he turned again to the front, and almost immediately was struck by a bullet in the neck. Even with this mortal wound he staggered several paces to the rear, when he fell, and died a few moments afterwards. Captain Grafton was a gallant soldier, and a gentleman in every sense of the word. He joined the regiment as junior second lieutenant in November, 1861. He was severely wounded at Cedar Mountain, and again at Chancellorsville. The latter wound was in one of his legs, which caused a lameness from which he never fully recovered, but in spite of pain and discomfort he maintained his place at the head of his company at all times, and with his fine bearing was an example of a gallant soldier. It seemed hard that he should meet his death after passing through the great campaigns of the war, and when the regiment was in action for the last time; but so it was, and we had to mourn the death of one more brave and true comrade.

The skirmishers of our brigade steadily pushed back those of the enemy, and after our ammunition was exhausted, we were relieved by General Coggswell's brigade of the Third Division, the remainder of the Twentieth Corps having now come up to the front and taken the place of the cavalry. Coggswell continued to press the enemy with his brigade, and advanced for about a mile until he encountered a line of breastworks into which the enemy had retreated. In the meantime our brigade, the Third of the First Division, had been transferred to the right, and late in the afternoon we were ordered forward again. Our last advance carried us close to the enemy's works, and we became hotly engaged. The action lasted until dark, when the firing subsided, and during the night the enemy retreated from our front.

The regiment carried into this action only 141 officers and men: the companies were mere skeletons. Captain Grafton, with two companies, had but twenty men under his command when he was killed. The casualties in the action were Captain Grafton and seven enlisted men killed or mortally wounded; Lieutenant-Colonel Morse and fourteen enlisted men wounded. Lieutenant Samuel Storrow, who had joined the regiment at Atlanta and had made the “March to the Sea,” was detailed as aide on General Coggswell's staff when the latter was placed in command of a brigade at Savannah. Averysboro was his first real battle, and he went into it full of zeal and courage. While carrying an order he was struck by a bullet, and although the wound did not seem serious he could not rally from its effect, and died a few hours after. He was a fine, spirited young fellow, and his loss was greatly felt by those who had been associated with him during his short term of service.

The battle of Averysboro was a comparatively small affair, but the fighting was spirited, and the march of Sherman's army was but little delayed by Hardee's efforts.

The battle of Bentonville followed on March 19, but the Second Massachusetts Regiment was not actively engaged.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 219-21

Diary of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle: Thursday, June 18, 1863

At 10 A.M. I called by appointment on Mr Sedden, the Secretary at War. His anteroom was crowded with applicants for an interview, and I had no slight difficulty in getting in. Mr Sedden is a cadaverous but clever-looking man; he received me with great kindness, and immediately furnished me with letters of introduction for Generals Lee and Longstreet.

My friend Major Norris then took me to the President's office and introduced me to the aides-de-camp of the President — viz., Colonels Wood, Lee, and Johnston. The two latter are sons to General Lee and General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was killed at Shiloh.

Major Norris then took me to the capitol, and introduced me to Mr Thompson the librarian, and to Mr Meyers, who is now supposed to look after British interests since the abrupt departure of Mr Moore, the Consul. I was told that Mr Moore had always been considered a good friend to the Southern cause, and had got into the mess which caused his removal entirely by his want of tact and discretion. There is a fine view from the top of the capitol; the librarian told me that last year the fighting before Richmond could easily be seen from thence, and that many ladies used to go up for that purpose. Every one said, that notwithstanding the imminence of the danger, the population of Richmond continued their daily avocations, and that no alarm was felt as to the result.

The interior of the capitol is decorated with numerous flags captured from the enemy. They are very gorgeous, all silk and gold, and form a great contrast to the little bunting battle flags of the Confederates. Amongst them I saw two colours which had belonged to the same regiment, the 37th New York (I think). These were captured in different battles; and on the last that was taken there is actually inscribed as a victory the word Fairoaks, which was the engagement in which the regiment had lost its first colour.

Mr Butler King, a member of Congress, whose acquaintance I had made in the Spottswood Hotel, took me to spend the evening at Mrs S——’s, a charming widow, for whom I had brought a letter from her only son, aide-de-camp to General Magruder, in Texas.

Mrs S—— is clever and agreeable. She is a highly patriotic Southerner; but she told me that she had stuck fast to the Union until Lincoln's proclamation calling out 75,000 men to coerce the South, which converted her and such a number of others into strong Secessionists. I spent a very pleasant evening with Mrs S——, who had been much in England, and had made a large acquaintance there.

Mr Butler King is a Georgian gentleman, also very agreeable and well informed. It is surprising to hear the extraordinary equanimity with which he and hundreds of fellow-sufferers talk of their entire ruin and the total destruction of their property. I know many persons in England suppose that Great Britain has now made enemies both of the North and South; but I do not believe this is the case with respect to the South, whatever certain Richmond papers may say. The South looks to England for everything when this war is over; — she wants our merchants to buy her cotton, she wants our ships to carry it;—she is willing that England should supply her with all the necessaries which she formerly received from the North. It is common to hear people declare they would rather pay twice the price for English goods than trade any more with Yankeedom.

SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 218-21

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Saturday May 30, 1863

Not quite so well. News Grant Whip Johnston in his rear, false news Memphis Bullitin Helena taken. Adj detailed post inspection gen. The 1st Indiana and 5th Kansas cavalry regiments and Dubuque battery, go down the river today

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 490

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: Friday, April 11, 1862

Clear and cold. Bet with Avery that five men could not put a great log across Piney. Rode out to see the work. The pine log was water-soaked, long, large, and very heavy. Five men from Company C worked resolutely at it two or three hours, when Avery gave it up. — Threatening again.

Further news shows that on Sunday our men near Pittsburg [Landing] were surprised by the Rebel army in great force from Corinth, Mississippi. They were driven from their camps with heavy loss, took shelter near the river under protection of the gunboats. Early next day Buell came up and attacked the enemy, routing him. Sidney Johnston reported killed and Beauregard wounded— lost an arm. We barely escaped an awful defeat, if these first accounts are true.

Island [Number] 10 was a great capture. Cannon, stores, etc., etc., in prodigious quantities were taken. These victories if followed up give us Memphis and New Orleans. — Nothing said about our moving the last three or four days.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 227

Diary of Lieutenant-Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: April 10, 1862

A. M. Ground whitened with snow; still threatening bad weather.

3. P. M. Captain Haven, Company G, and Lieutenant Bacon, Company K, have just returned. They bring fifteen prisoners and about fifteen horses, with a number of saddles and bridles. They were captured over New River in Monroe County.

At 8 P. M. F. M. Ingram (the silent telegrapher) came in saying we had gained a victory at Corinth; Major-General Lew Wallace killed; [Albert] Sidney Johnston, ditto; Beauregard lost an arm. Later told me that Island Number 10 was taken with six thousand prisoners. Glorious, if true! Night, clear and cold.

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 227

Diary of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle: Saturday, May 30, 1863

It rained hard all last night, but General Polk's tent proved itself a good one. We have prayers both morning and evening, by Dr Quintard, together with singing, in which General Polk joins with much zeal. Colonel Gale, who is son-in-law and volunteer aide-de-camp to General Polk, has placed his negro Aaron and a mare at my disposal during my stay.

General Polk explained to me, from a plan, the battle of Murfreesborough. He claimed that the Confederates had only 30,000 troops, including Breckenridge's division, which was not engaged on the first day. He put the Confederate loss at 10,000 men, and that of the Yankees at 19,000. With regard to the battle of Shiloh,* he said that Beauregard's order to retire was most unfortunate, as the gunboats were doing no real harm, and if they (the Confederates) had held on, nothing could have saved the Federals from capture or destruction. The misfortune of Albert Johnston's death, together with the fact of Beauregard's illness and his not being present at that particular spot, were the causes of this battle not being a more complete victory. Ever since I landed in America, I had heard of the exploits of an Englishman called Colonel St Leger Grenfell, who is now Inspector-General of Cavalry to Bragg's army. This afternoon I made his acquaintance, and I consider him one of the most extraordinary characters I ever met. Although he is a member of a well-known English family, he seems to have devoted his whole life to the exciting career of a soldier of fortune. He told me that in early life he had served three years in a French lancer regiment, and had risen from a private to be a sous-lieutenant. He afterwards became a sort of consular agent at Tangier, under old Mr Drummond Hay. Having acquired a perfect knowledge of Arabic, he entered the service of Abd-el-Kader, and under that renowned chief he fought the French for four years and a half. At another time of his life he fitted out a yacht, and carried on a private war with the Riff pirates. He was brigade-major in the Turkish contingent during the Crimean war, and had some employment in the Indian mutiny. He has also been engaged in war in Buenos Ayres and the South American republics. At an early period of the present troubles he ran the blockade and joined the Confederates. He was adjutant-general and right-hand man to the celebrated John Morgan for eight months. Even in this army, which abounds with foolhardy and desperate characters, he has acquired the admiration of all ranks by his reckless daring and gallantry in the field. Both Generals Polk and Bragg spoke to me of him as a most excellent and useful officer, besides being a man who never lost an opportunity of trying to throw his life away. He is just the sort of man to succeed in this army, and among the soldiers his fame for bravery has outweighed his unpopularity as a rigid disciplinarian. He is the terror of all absentees, stragglers, and deserters, and of all commanding officers who are unable to produce for his inspection the number of horses they have been drawing forage for. He looks about forty-five, but in reality he is fifty-six. He is rather tall, thin, very wiry and active, with a jovial English expression of countenance ; but his eyes have a wild, roving look, which is common amongst the Arabs. When he came to me he was dressed in an English staff blue coat, and he had a red cavalry forage-cap, which latter, General Polk told me, he always wore in action, so making himself more conspicuous. He talked to me much about John Morgan, whose marriage he had tried to avert, and of which he spoke with much sorrow. He declared that Morgan was enervated by matrimony, and would never be the same man as he was. He said that in one of the celebrated telegraph tappings in Kentucky, Morgan, the operator, and himself, were seated for twelve hours on a clay-bank during a violent storm, but the interest was so intense, that the time passed like three hours* General Polk's son, a young artillery lieutenant, told me this evening that “Stonewall Jackson” was a professor at the military school at Lexington, in which he was a cadet. “Old Jack” was considered a persevering but rather dull master, and was often made a butt of by cheeky cadets, whose great ambition it was to irritate him, but, however insolent they were, he never took the slightest notice of their impertinence at the time, although he always had them punished for it afterwards. At the outbreak of the war, he was called upon by the cadets to make a speech, and these were his words: “Soldiers make short speeches: be slow to draw the sword in civil strife, but when you draw it, throw away the scabbard.” Young Polk says that the enthusiasm created by this speech of old Jack's was beyond description.

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¹ Called Pittsburg Landing and Corinth.

² This was the occasion, when they telegraphed such a quantity of nonsense to the Yankee general, receiving valuable information in return, and such necessary stores by train as Morgan was in need of.

SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 148

Diary of Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle: Saturday, April 25, 1863

San Antonio is prettily situated on both banks of the river of the same name. It should contain about 10,000 inhabitants, and is the largest place in Texas, except Galveston.

The houses are well built of stone, and they are generally only one or two storeys high. All have verandahs in front.

Before the war San Antonio was very prosperous, and rapidly increasing in size; but trade is now almost at a complete stand-still. All the male population under forty are in the military service, and many necessary articles are at famine prices. Coffee costs $7 a lb.

Menger's hotel is a large and imposing edifice, but its proprietor (a civil German) was on the point of shutting it up for the present.

During the morning I visited Colonel Bankhead, a tall, gentlemanlike Virginian, who was commanding officer of the troops here. He told me a great deal about the Texan history, the Jesuit missions, and the Louisiana purchase, &c.; and he alarmed me by doubting whether I should be able to cross the Mississippi if Banks had taken Alexandria.

I also made the acquaintance of Major Minter, another Virginian, who told me he had served in the 2d cavalry in the old United States army. The following officers in the Confederate army were in the same regiment—viz., General A. S. Johnston (killed at Shiloh), General Lee, General Van Dorn, General Hardee, General Kirby Smith, and General Hood*

By the advice of M'Carthy, I sent my portmanteau and some of my heavy things to be sold by auction, as I could not possibly carry them with me.

I took my place by the stage for Alleyton (Houston): it cost $40; in old times it was $13.

I dined with M'Carthy and young Duff at 3 P.M. The latter would not bear of my paying my share of the expenses of the journey from Brownsville. Mrs M'Carthy was thrown into a great state of agitation and delight by receiving a letter from her mother, who is in Yankeedom. Texas is so cut off that she only hears once in many months.

Colonel and Mrs Bankhead called for me in their ambulance at 5 P.M., and they drove me to see the source of the San Antonio, which is the most beautiful clear spring I ever saw. We also saw the extensive foundations for a tannery now being built by the Confederate Government.

The country is very pretty, and is irrigated in an ingenious manner by ditches cut from the river in all directions. It is thus in a great degree rendered independent of rain.

At San Antonio spring we were entertained by a Major Young, a queer little naval officer, — why a major I couldn't discover.

Mrs Bankhead is a violent Southerner. She was twice ordered out of Memphis by the Federals on account of her husband's principles; but she says that she was treated with courtesy and kindness by the Federal General Sherman, who carried out the orders of his Government with regret.

None of the Southern people with whom I have spoken entertain any hopes of a speedy termination of the war. They say it must last all Lincoln's presidency, and perhaps a good deal longer.

In the neighbourhood of San Antonio, one-third of the population is German, and many of them were at first by no means loyal to the Confederate cause. They objected much to the conscription, and some even resisted by force of arms; but these were soon settled by Duff's regiment, and it is said they are now reconciled to the new regime.

My portmanteau, with what was in it — for I gave away part of my things — sold for $323. Its value in England couldn't have been more than £8 or £9. The portmanteau itself, which was an old one, fetched $51; a very old pair of butcher boots, $32; five shirts $42; an old overcoat $25.

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* Also the Federal Generals Thomas and Stoneman.

SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three months in the southern states: April-June, 1863, p. 49-52

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: April 1, 1862

Gen. Sydney Johnston having fallen in battle, the command in the West devolved on Gen. Beauregard, whose recent defense at Island No. 10 on the Mississippi, has revived his popularity. But, I repeat, he is a doomed man.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 118