Letter From Pittsburg

The following private letter from Shiloh field will be of interest to our readers, and we trust the writer will excuse its publication:

PITTSBURG BATTLE-FIELD,
April 12, 1862

DEAR BROTHER – You have no doubt ere this heard of the greatest battle fought on this continent, and as you feel somewhat anxious to hear from me, I improve the first opportunity by saying that I am unhurt, and that my health was never better than at present. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I was not in the fight, as our division was the last of Gen. Buell’s army to come up, and we did not arrive till four o’clock on Tuesday morning, when the battle was fought and the victory won. We were about 60 miles distant on Sunday morning when the firing commenced, and at noon we could distinctly hear the cannonading. As we came along each report seemed “[Nearer], clearer, deadlier than before.”

The last 38 miles we came on a forced march, and owing to the desperate roads we had to travel, and the incessant rain of Monday night, we had rather a bad time of it. We (the signal corps) came thro with Gen. Thomas, his body guard and staff, but the troops did not arrive till Wednesday.

Soon after our arrival I went out on the battle-field, and the sights I there saw beggar description. The dead were lying in heaps, and in many places the bushes and trees were literally mown down. The ground strewn with dead horses, broken artillery wagons, guns, cartridge-boxes, &c. The only consolation I could gather from this most sickening sight was that there were about two dead rebels to one of our men. I can form no idea of the number killed, but the loss must be very heavy on both sides. The papers have probably given you the particulars more correctly than I can. McCook’s division was in the hottest of the fight, and came out covered with honors. The old 15th has won a name long to be remembered, but not without some loss. Company E, to which I belonged, had 3 killed and 6 or 8 wounded. The other companies suffered much the same. Col. Kirk was wounded in the shoulder. It will disable him for a while, but is not considered dangerous. It is not now thought the rebels will make an attack on the forces now here, and with the position we now occupy, as that would be certain death to the Confederate cause.

I have frequently heard it hinted that Gen. Grant will lose some of his military honors in this fight, while Buell and his army are lauded to the skies. The Illinois boys who were in both say that the Fort Donelson fight was only a skirmish to the side of this one. Gen. Halleck arrived this morning and takes command. Write soon for I have not heard from you since we parted at Franklin, Tenn.

In haste, your brother,

T. W. VAN LAW.


The Col. Kirk mentioned above was a former resident of Ohio, though practicing Law in Illinois when the war broke out. He was chosen Col. Of the 34th Illinois, and was in command of the brigade in McCook’s division when I saw him at Columbia. He is a gentleman and a fine scholar, and the fact of his having two horses shot under him in the late battle shows that he dare go in “harm’s way.”

J. V.

– Published in The Athens Messenger, Athens, Ohio, Thursday, April 24, 1862