Official Reports of the Battle Of Shiloh: No. 67 - Capt. John Williams, 6th Iowa Infantry

No. 67.

Report of Capt. John Williams, Sixth Iowa Infantry.

HEADQUARTERS SIXTH IOWA INFANTRY,

Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., April 10, 1862.

COLONEL. Having assumed command of the regiment by your order, I have the honor to make the following official report of the Sixth Iowa Infantry during the recent engagement:

On Sunday morning, when the attack was made on General Grant's center, the regiment was immediately brought into line of battle, and was then moved about 50 yards to the front along the edge of the woods. Company I was thrown out as skirmishers, and Companies E and G were moved to the left and front of our line to support a battery just placed there. We were in this position for more than two hours, when we were ordered to fall back to the rear of our camp on the Purdy road.

The battle at this time was raging fiercely in the center and extending gradually to the right. The line was slowly yielding to a vastly superior force, and it now became evident that we must change our position or be entirely cut off from the rest of the army. The regiment then marched by the left flank about 600 yards; crossed an open field about 150 yards wide; took a position in the edge of the woods, and formed a new line of battle, which was again succeeded by another line nearly perpendicular to the former, the right resting close to the Purdy road.

It was here Lieutenants Halliday and Grimes were wounded and carried from the field, thus preventing them from distinguishing themselves, as they undoubtedly would have done had they been spared to take part in the desperate and severe struggle that soon ensued. It was here that Companies D and K, on picket duty at Owl Creek, joined the regiment by a circuitous route, the enemy having already got between them and the regiment.

The regiment did not remain here long, however, but moved by the left flank in an easterly direction about half a mile, over a broken and open field, and again entered the woods. A new line was formed, and the regiment moved forward to meet the advancing foe. The line of battle –at this time diagonal to the enemy's – was immediately changed to front them, and it was here that the regiment withstood a shower of leaden hail and bullets which now was pouring in upon it with deadly effect. Notwithstanding a vastly superior force and with no support, the regiment gallantly maintained this position for more than two hours, and when it became apparent that no succor was coming to it, and after the enemy had already turned our right flank and began pouring a galling cross-fire upon it, the regiment was ordered to retire. It fell back in good order and was assigned to the support of batteries near the river. At this stage of the battle I was wounded and carried from the field. From authentic sources I learn, however, that the regiment, under Captain Walden, remained at the batteries all night.

The next day the regiment was not formed as a regiment, but a detachment, under Lieutenants Minton and Allison, was connected to an Illinois regiment, and the major portion, under Captain Walden, voluntarily joined Colonel Garfield's command, and participated in the engagement throughout the day until the enemy fled in great confusion.

In regard to the bravery, coolness, and intrepidity of both officers and men too much cannot be said. Where all did so well to particularize would seem invidious; suffice it to say the officers, with one or two exceptions, are deserving the highest praise. The men were at all times cool and as free from fear or confusion as if they were on dress-parade.

The list of casualties, which I append below, fully attests the severity of the contest.

The following is the number of killed, wounded, and missing in the two days’ engagement :*

Killed	64
Wounded	100
Missing	47
Total	211

Total number engaged less than 650.

I have the honor to be, yours, respectfully,

 JOHN WILLIAMS,

 Captain, Commanding Regiment.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume X (Serial No. 10), Part I, pages 256-7

Dedication Exercises at the Sixth Iowa Regimental Monument: Shiloh National Military Park

November 22, 1906

_____

9:45 A.M.

Music: Fifty-fifth Iowa Regimental Band

"Lead, Kindly Light"

Introduction of Speaker:

Captain Charles W. Kepler

A son of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander J. Miller, who at the time of the battle of Shiloh was Lieutenant of Co. G, Sixth Iowa, but who on July 18, 1863, became Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment, will speak a few words for the Sixth Iowa Infantry.

Address:

Jesse A. Miller of Des Moines, Iowa

Ladies and Gentlemen:

We have heard this morning that certain regiments went into this battle as green troops. That is true of almost all the regiments that were here, for this was one of the early battles of the war, but there was no regiment that was placed here in as bad a predicament as the Sixth Iowa. On the morning that the battle commenced, its Colonel was in command of a brigade. Its Major was away on staff duty, and its Lieutenant Colonel was drunk and unable to command the regiment. The regiment fought here on this field for some time, without any commanding officer at all, except its company commanders, and when the commander of the brigade found that the Lieutenant Colonel was drunk he had him placed under arrest and sent to the rear. Captain Williams, who was not a ranking captain, was placed in command, and he commanded the regiment during the battle, until he was wounded, and then Captain Walden was placed in command. And so, while I say they were green troops, they were even worse off than other regiments, for they started without any commanding officers at all, and when they got one, he was not the one who had commanded them in the past. And yet this regiment did as valiant service as any regiment engaged. This regiment lost more men killed and mortally wounded in this battle than any other from Iowa, and more than any other regiment engaged, either north or south, with possibly one exception. I believe the Ninth Illinois had more men killed or mortally wounded here than the Sixth Iowa.

Throughout this battle, when Albert Sidney Johnston in the front was charging them, this regiment stood as a wall until they were driven back, and when driven back, although separated into two detachments, they again formed and on the second day of the battle they again went into the fight and fought until the end of the engagement.

This monument is erected to the memory of those who fought and suffered here, and it is a fitting memorial. The thing it teaches to us is not so much the valor of those who died and suffered here, as that we who come after them must live a high and noble life to merit what our forefathers have done for us. I, as one who was born after the war, as one who knows nothing of the war except as I have heard and read, feel that I am a better man and will live a better life for having visited these battlefields; and I believe that the people of all the states of this Union would be better citizens if they would visit the battlefields and see what we have seen and hear what we have heard. I hope that as the days go by and as the years roll on, that annually there will be pilgrimages from the north and from the south to these fields, that inspiration may be received by others, as it has been received by us, and that these memorials will ever tend to raise the citizenship of this country and make the people of this nation a better and higher type of civilization than any that has gone before.

Benediction:

Rev. S. H. Hedrix of Allerton, Iowa

"Our Father and our God, we praise thee for all of this great work and for this great regiment. Do thou bless the Sixth Iowa, its living and its dead; Lord bless and care for them all. Help us who are here today to know that our part is linked together with all of these great regiments on this and other fields, and do thou keep us all near to thee, looking forward and upward to better things, with purity of heart and life. May we keep our schools, our churches, our homes and our land, in all of its civilization, growing wondrously, in the great Redeemer's name.  Amen."

SOURCE:  Alonzo Abernathy, Editor, Dedication of Monuments Erected By The State Of Iowa, 212-4

See Also:

• 6th Iowa Infantry Monument: Shiloh National Military Park
• The Iowa Monuments At Shiloh National Military Park