North Carolina Newspapers

The Newton Enterprise. VOL. XXXVII NEWTON, N. C, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1915. NO. 2 THE BATTLE OF SHILOH. BY ANNE EACHMAN HYDE For twelve years a primitive la;- church, ca led Shiloh, built by the Methodists in Hardin County, Tennessee, had enjoyed the privileges of peaceful Sab baths. k tood upon a slight rise, two and a half miles back from Pitts- lamung, on the west bank m o Tennessee river, and the roa 1 which ran past it led to i!nih, Mississippi. And the .a: :e of this church and of this .vn. one so noted in a biblical :,vA the other in a classical way, v. e. e destined to become equally v.vii known in American History. S . 'enly one April morning in . : 1 1 1 1 . Ml I K.: ire aooain stillness was .on by the roar of artillery, a ; a' rny fell upon another as douly as a cake of barley :.(! tumbled into the host of ''.lia;:. and coming to the tents ;o them till they fell." The material church soon lost . - o::s:ence: its seats and pulpit r w used in the construction of ps by one army and its floor iri'.do into rude coffins to bury cs sers of another, but the of Shi loh endures. 1 1 the brittle came about and why the forces met there is an investing story. With the fall of Fort Henry a :i Fort Donelson in February l- .V! the corner of the outer line :' defence of the Confederacy v a- broken. Kentucky was abandoned, and a new line chosen, that of the ;Je?nphis and Charleston railroad which ran almost due east from Memphis to Chattanooga. The campaigns of the War be t veen the States were largely hiiluenced by the topography of the South and both armies sought control of the rivers and rail roads, and the contest for the control of the Mississippi river va? cf vital importance. A I0112 as the Confederate ar my v bank sr:a: bf n in posession of . both d could control that New Orleans could ned as an open port a'; -i : ny s tior. could mpathetic foreign na sur.pl y the Ccnfeder- ac-y with ammunition and cloth- ing. The Ohio joins the Mississippi at Paducah, Ky., that point gained, boats could go up the Cumberland, and Tennessee to the interior of the Confederacy and reaching some point con necting with railroad transporta tion, be in touch with its vital organization. So the village of Corinth, situ ated in northeast Mississippi at the intersection of the Memphis and Charleston railroad with that of the Mobile and Ohio, became a strategic point. The Confed eracy had strong works at Island No. 1 and at New Madrid, which if they held, could close the Mississippi river to the Fed eral fie st. The Mobile and Ohio railroad connected these points with the Mississippi and the Gulf. From Memphis to Chattanooga was almost a direct line for the Memphis and Charleston railroad and when Chattanooga was reached the old East Tennessee line was a high road to Vir ginia. If the Federal forces could sever the Memphis and Charles ton railroad and control the Ten nessee river their gunboats could protect them from any attack from the West, and both armies saw the importance of Corinth, Mississippi as a base. Maj. Gen. H. W. Halleck was now in sole command of the Union forces in the West. After the fall of Fort Donel son, General Don Carlos Buell, in command of the Department of the Ohio occupied Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, and General Albert Sidney Johnston, in command of the Confederate forces in the West fell back to Murfreesboro. General U. S. Grant had been temporarily removed from the command of the Army of the Tennessee, but was restored to his former position by General Halleck on March 17th, 1862 and told to "destroy the railroad con nections at Corinth." During General Grant's period of inac tivity Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee river had been select ed for the Federal base, . and a large part of the Army of the Tennessee encamped there be fore General Grant took com mand. About the time the Federal army selected Pittsburg landing as its base, General P. G. T. Beauregard chose Corinth, Miss issippi as the Confederate base. This selection for the Federal encampment, which has been as warmly defended as it has been bitterly criticized was made upon the recommendation of General W. T. Sherman, who highly ap proved of the location and wrote to General Grant: "The ground itself admits of easy defense by a small command, and yet af fords admirablecamping-ground for 100.000 men." -. The space occupied covered about three miles each way and was in the form of a quadrilater al with natural boundaries. In the rear was the wide and deep Tennessee river, Snake creek to the north emptying into the riv er below the landing, and Owl creek, a tributary of Snake, en closing the west. To the south east Lick creek empties into the river above the landing. All of the creeks were swollen by spring rains and would prove obstacles to any invasion. At a Court Martial held in Memphis, Tennessee, August, 1862 General Sherman said : 4 'I mention for future history that our right flank was well guarded by Owl and Snake creeks, and our left by Lick Creek, leaving us simply to" guard our front." In- an article written about Shiloh General Grant said: "The water tin all the streams was very high at the time and con tributed to protect our flanks; the enemy was compelled there fore to attack directly in front." Now. the enemy did attack precisely in this front, which ac cording to General Sherman was the only place to be guarded, and in' such force that "The call to arms blended with the crash of assault and when the whole for est on thelrising ground in the front flashed with the gleam of bayonets then, LGen. Sherman, as he reports "became satisfied for the first time that the enemy designed "a determined attack." The historian, John Fiske, says that Sherman""stoutly main tained that he was'not surprised by the Confederate attack at Shiloh, but, as Fiske adds: "The point is one of which General Sherman wasunduly sensitive in his later years." Then why did they leave un guarded the'open'road which led from their encampment to the village of Corinth where lay, only 20 miles away, the Confed erate army under General Albert Sidney Johnston! At the dedication of a memo rial to the;lst Minnesota Battery at Shiloh General Andrews said: "It was not General Grant's purposeto have a"; battle at Shil oh." But it was the purpose of General Johnston and there the battle was fought. On April 5th, 1862, there were at Pittsburg landing, present for duty 39,830 soldiers of the Army of the Tennessee, five divisions in all, and only 5 miles away was the 3rd division, under General Lew Wallace, with 7,564 officers and men. General Halleck has ordered General Buell to march from Nashville with! his 37,000 men and join General Grant, with the purpose of attacking Corinth,, and his first division under General Nelson reached the east bank of the Tennessee river the afternoon of Saturday, April the 5th, and General Buell came up that night. When Gen eral Grant took command at Pittsburg landing, he made his headquarters at Savannah, a am nil rvam on the east side of the river, 8 miles lower down. He visited the camp each day and returned each night to his lodtrincs in the Cherry mansion on the right bank of the river. He knew that the Confederate army was at Corinth in force, and in an official dispatch he es timated their numbers "at about 80.000." but he anticipated ho attack from that quarter. The Confederate fortes m reality numbered about 43,968 men, and while General Grant was setting his camp in order and going down the river to nend th niffhti in comfortable quarters, leaving his army in an acephalous condition, they were preparing to strike the blow which he anticipated would fall upon them. After the fall of Fort Donel son, the Southerners had mur mured against their great leader, General Albert Sidney Johnston, to such an extent that President Davis wrote: "If Sidney John sten is not a general, I have none to give you." A committee was appointed to investigate the recent disasters of the Confederacy and General Johnston was retained in com mand of the Confederate Army of the West and General P. G. T. Beauregard was made second in command. To reach General Beauregard at Corinth General Johnston marched south from Murfrees boro over terrible roads and swollen streams, crossing the Tennessee river at Decatur, Ala bama near the middle of March, and reached the Confederate base about the same time Gener al Grant took command at Pitts burg, landing General Beaure gard had begun to concentrate his forces, General Bragg joining him with 10,000 men from Mo bile and Pensacola; General Le on idas Polk reaching there after the abandonment of Columbus, Kentucky, and General Earl Van Dorn was ordered to bring up his troops from Arkansas. On March 29th General Johnston issued a general order consolidat ing the'armies of Kentucky and Mississippi and some indepen dent commands, into the "Army of the Mississippi," of which he was in command, General Beau regard second; Major General Braxton Bragg chief of Staff. Subsequently he organized the army into 4 corps: 1st Corps Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk. 2nd Corps Maj. Gen, Braxton Bragg. 3rd Corps Maj. Gen., W VJ Hardee and a Reserve Corps, I commanded by Brig. -Gen J. C. Breckanridge. Johnston had been much de pressed by the censure of the "arm chair" critics, and as late as March 18th, in a moment of chivalric generosity offered the chief command to General Beau regard who had recently won high honors in Virginia. General Beauregard declined the offer, though he apparently considered it as an evidence of self-distrust on the part of Gen eral Johnston, but no one who studies that great character can construe it other than "an'act of unselfishness, not wishing to de prive another of glory, for John ston was as brave as he was gen tle. General Beauregard was charg ed with special preparation of the troops for the proposed cam paign, which to General John ston's mind was plain and sim ple; to march in force and strike and crush General Grant at Pittsburg landing before General Buell could reach him. General Van Dorn was delayed m coming over trom Arkansas, and learning through scouts of Col. N. B. Forrest that Buell was rapidly moving toward the Tennessee river, Johnston decided to attack at once, and on April 3rd issued orders f orthe forward movement, the army to move by several roads from Corinth and concentrate at Mickey's, 8 miles from Pittsburg landing. In the address to be read at the head of each regiment General Johnston said: "You, are expected to show yourselves worthy of your line age, worthy of the women of the South, whose noble devotion, in this war has never been exceed ed in any time." By the delay of the 2nd and 3rd corps the army was not ready to march till the afternoon of the 3rd, when it should have moved at noon, and the plan was to at tack at dawn on Saturday morn- mg. But the roads were narrow and bad,' the spring rains had begun and moving artillery was slow work. In line of march Hardee's corps came first and was given first line in battle, as his troops were more hardened to march ing. In the rear 500 yards came Bragg' 8 Corps, and 800 yards in rear of him came Polk. The reserve under General Breckenridge followed. Owing to a heavy ram Friday and a storm that night, and consequent difficulty of bringing up the ar tillery, a delay of almost 24 hours ensued, so the attack planned for Saturday morning was im possible. But in the rain and over rough roads the army pushed forward and by the middle of Saturday afternoon lay in full battle array within two miles of Shiloh church. Now what was transpiring within the Union lines the first few days of April? General Grant had under his command six divisions in order: 1st Maj. -Gen. John McClern and. 2nd Brig. -Gen, Wallace. 3rd Maj. -Gen. 4th-Brig.-Gen. 5th Brig. -Gen. man. 6th Brig. -Gen. . W. H. L. Lew Wallace. S. A. Hurlbut. W. T. Sher- B. M. Pren- tiss. There had been some difference between Generals Sherman and McCiernand, so to General Sher man General Grant gave the dis -nosal of troops at Pittsburg land ing, except those of the division of McClcmafid. The camps of Sherman and Prentiss formed the front line of Union forces about two and a half miles from Pittsburg land ing, and extended in a semi-circle from Owl creek on the right to Lick creek on the left. Gen eral Sherman's headquarters were at Shiloh church and he was nearest that point which he said wei the only one to be guarded the open front toward the enemy. And from Pittsburg landing, past Shiloh - church, ran the country road to Corinth. Meanwhile the Union army lay in the field without entrench- LTnent, no out posts, no defensive works, no artificial protection of any character and no cavalry pickets to give information of the movements of a hostile army 20 miles away, with no river or mountain between them. On the 3rd and 4th of April there had been some skirmishing between the cavalry of both ar mies, and on Saturday, the 5th, Generals Prentiss and Sherman each sent out reconnoitering parties to the front, who report ed "evidences of cavalry" but failed to find any special reason for alarm, and that very day General Sherman wrote to Gen eral Grant: "I do not apprehend anything like an attack on our j position." But some of these "evidences of cavalry" belonged to Col. N. B. Forrest, who was detached to picket along Lick creek, and on Friday night slept within three miles of where it emptied into the Tennessee river and lay and listened to the camp music in the Federal lines. On Saturday morning General Sherman gave an order to cut a road from Owl creek, in front of Shiloh church to an old cotton field three-quarters of a mile east of the camp. A bridge was thrown across Owl creek and a road made of sufficient width for the march of the Union army toward Corinth. At 2 o'clock that afternoon when skirmishing with the cav alry began, Union officers watch ed with a glass, a Confederate officer upon his gray horse across the old cotton-field, and learned afterward that it was Nathan Bedford Forrest, and when the attack was made the next day a Confederate gun was unlimbered in the road cut the day before by the Federal fatigue party. The day's work being finished, so to speak, Saturday afternoon, Gen eral Grant went out to the rear, down the Tennessee river to spend the night, and confer with General Nelson, advance guard of Buell's division, who had just reached Savannah. Then it was, he said to Gener al Nelson: "There will be no fight at Pittsburg landing; we will have to go to Corinth where the rebels are fortified." Had he known it, "Birnam difficult to bring the artillery w onma t him." and'across: the wooded heights with while he spoke the rebels lay out side the unguarded front & w w We have testimonyof a young artilleryman of Hardee's that he lay all that spring afternoon, scarcely more than a mile away from Shiloh church and looked longingly at the white dogwood blossoms and thought of the creeks near by, for when the dogwood blooms, it is time to go fishing. He too, like Forrest, heard the drums beating in the Federal camp. For while the Confederate ad vance had not been made as rap idly as it should have been on account of the rains and vexa tious dehiys in the 2nd and 3rd corps, stiii they had come up in order and the army lay Saturday afternoon two miles from the Federal line, where a council of war was held, which developed dissenting views, General Beau regard had been the first to con cur with General Johnston in the "plan of attack, but now was in favor of giving it up and retreat ing to Corinth. The march had been made with o much difficulty; there had been a careless management of rations by men not yet thorough ly war-Feasoned; fires had been kindled along the way and fresh soldiers had recklessly discharg td their guns to see if they could he used after the excessive rains, so, urged General Beauregard, it almost was impossible now for the Federal army to be unaware of the presence of so large force. ' As to the scarcity of rations General Johnston said: "Let the men get them from the Union Army," and after listen- ing to ail objections, he said: ''Gentlemen, we shall attack at daylight tomorrow," Alter t ne rams tne sun clear on Saturday evening, the air was soft and fuli of grance of the wild flowers budding "trees. S6i. and All that night an army of nearly forty thousand men lay in an army it would attack at dawn and its presence was not detect edthis is not fiction, but it is stranger than fiction. At a quarter past five o'clock the next morning the first shot was fired which disturbed the calm of that Sabbath day. The advancing army encountered a hostile army, with more than one hundred guns and over twen ty batteries not in battle line, but in camp, and General Bragg wrote: "Many were surprised and captured in their tents, and others though on the outside in costumes better fitted to the bed chamber than to the battlefield," and, adds, his adjutant-general, "the arms and accoutrements spread around in the orderiess fashion of holiday soldiers." The opening attack was - made upon Gen. Benjamin Prentiss, who, being a brave man rallied his division and threw it forward only to be struck by the Con federates in force. They came in three parallel lines, Hardee in front parallel with 10,000 men; scarcely half a mile behind him Bragg with 10,000, and next in line Polk with 10,000 and Breck inridge's 6,000 reserves to the right. At seven o'clock the artillery opened fire, and the battle began which raged forthirteen hours. The marvel is that men taken so unawares fought as well as the brave ones among them did, without an organized head and with no concerted plan of battle. Gen. Grant was at Savannah taking his breakfast when he heard the sound of firing at Pitts burg landing. Taking boat he started at once and reached the front possibly by nine o'clock. By this time Prentiss, who had resisted valiantly, had been push ed back half a mile; his division lay in the centre and half a mile away from three brigades of Sherman on the right, while to the. left of him lay Gen. Stuart with another brigade of Sher man's which rested upon Lick Creek. The ground fought over was partly primitive forest, alternat ing with a few cleared fields, crossed by numerous j whose marshy margins ravines, made it undergrowth forming screens and and rallying points for the re treating army. The battle was a series of separate fights, each division commander taking care of his troops as liest he could, but being constantly outflanked the general trend was to the rear; the troops rallied whenever pos sible, but, rallying and ebbing and flowing, were gradually forc ed back toward the river. By noon Sherman's line had so dis integrated that fragments of his division mingled with McCler nand's which lay to his left and rear and about two o'clock in the afternoon Sherman and McCier nand retired their mutual division across Tillman Creek and held a position which was somewhat protected by Hurlburt and Wil liam Wallace. About ten o'clock, Prentiss, with Gen. William Wallace and two brigades of Hurlburt's divi sion took up a strong position which they held for five or six hours against the assaults of five Confederate brigades who made nine unsuccessful charges against the Union line between 10:?0 a. m. and 5 p, m. This was at the point, called by the Confederates i'The Horn ets' Nest." To reach this rally ing point so strongly defend - d by batteries an open field had to be crossed, swept by blinding sheets of fire. On the eastern margin of this field, while personally directing the movements of his reserve, Gen. Albert Sid ney Johnston was struck by a minie ball, which sevr imr an artery caused his in the right death in abou . ten minutes. Ke was tenderly carried ravine nearby, and had his geon been with him, his ur life tved but might readily have been s by the simplest contrivance, the end came so suddenly, mem bers of his staff who stood around him seemed dazed to see "how quick this bright thing can.? to confusion" and his broth -inlaw Gen. William Preston sc obed aloud in his grief. Dr. Yandell, his surgeon, had been sent by Gen. Johnston's orders, to care for the wounded Federal prisoners as well as his own men. Gen. Johnston was carried back to Corinth that afternoon and was buried in New Orleans with high honors. Gen. Beaure gard, then in the rear at Shiloh Church took command of the Confederate army. Gen. Stuart who was i an isolated position on the Federal left maintained his place till 3 p. m., and after losing more than j half his men managed to get his remnant to the landing, and after j would be too late to attack. Stuart fell back Hurlbut's posi-! Hastening back to his command tioh was lost This left Prentiss I ing officer he told what he had exposed and soon he and Wallace ! seen and was ordered to report were attacked in front and on ' to Gen. Beauregard. In the night both flanks. ; and confusion he failed to find About five o'clock Wallace fell mortally wounded and Prentiss surrendered with 2,200 men and the centre of the Federal army ceased resistance, but every student of history will agree that Gen. Benjamin Prentiss, who fought from five in the morning till five in the afternoon, con - tributed much to the salvation of the Union army. After the surrender of Prentiss a way was opened to attack the last line of the Union army which was near the landing. Col. Webster, chief of artillery on Gen. Grant's staff, had planted some siege guns on the bluff above the landing, and these were reenforced by those coming back from the front till there were more tnan zu guns an a m i front of this position a large ravine filled with water, making a charge upon it almost hope ess. but on came the dauntless sole iers and just as three Confed -ate brigades made an attack pon this battery the two Federal ;un-, charged repeatedly the day be boats, the Tyler and Lexing.on, ! fore, so covered with dead it would joined in sending an enfile : i ng fire through the ranks of tht ad vancing soldiers. By this time the advance i rig ade of Nelson's division had crossed the river and begun to support the Federal artillery. The Confederates were driven back and before they could orm for another attack Gen. Be. ure gard gave the order to cease fir ing and retire from the range of the gun boat fire. It was well for the Union army that Nelson came up when he did, though those to whom he brought aid seem scarcely to realize how timely his assistance was. He had not been able to find his way on the east side of the the river and Gen. Lew Wallace had lost his on the west side, so Gen. Grant after he got upon the field sent guides to the one and couriers to the other and also a a letter to Gen. Buell, about noon urging him to bring up his his fresh troops, "as it may possibly save the day to us." And adds: "The rebel forces are estimated at over 100,000 men." Gen. Buell had not waited for the letter, but came up the river upon the sound of firing of the guns, and unfortunately, coming in through "the rear," as Gen. Grant expressed it, was unfavor ably impressed with the " strag glers" whom he encountered in the river (the mouth of Snake Creek being full of them swim ming across) and on the bank at the landing, and who re sisted all efforts of Buell to rally them, and whose numbers he estimated at from five to fif teen thousand. From early in the morning till almost nightfall the victorious Confederate army pressed across the bloody field and when the order came to withdraw, their shots had fallen into the Ten nessee River. By Southern writers Beaure gard has been much criticized for the order to withdraw, which was bitterly lamented by Bragg and other officers at the front ! who felt that had the attack been pressed, with the hour of day light remaining, the battery would have been silenced. But the battle had raged for thirteen hours, the troops were worn and weary, the losses had been great and Gen. Beauregard, who was in the rear, where he could not see how small an effort was needed to press the victory, fear ed to further expose his troops. The Confederate soldiers re tired to the deserted Federal camp and slept that night in ! their tents Gen. Beauregard oc cupying Gen. Sherman's head quarters at Shiloh Church. The sun went down in a red hale, and a violent rain storm broke later over the battlefield i where lay "the weary to sleep land the wounded to die." I That night Col. N. B. Forrest, j with his cavalry scouts, clad ; in captured Federal overcoats, , crept down to the river bank and 1 j and saw and heard Gen. Buell i bringing his reenforcements i across, and realized that morning his superior. WTien Monday morning dawn ed, Gen Lew Wallace found his way and brought up his 5000 men and Gen. Buell occupied the j bluff above the river with more ! than 20.000 fresh troops, j Now Gen. Grant had become 1 the aggressor and attacked at i daybreak. But 20,000 exhausted Confederate soldiers could not hold the dearly bought Shiloh field against the remnant of Grant's army reenforced by more than 30.000 fresh troops. The shattered forces resisted with valor till afternoon when Beauregard began the retreat to Corinth and the Federal forces did not pursue. The losses were frightful, the Federal forces having a total of 13,047 and the Confederates 10, 699. Gen. Grant said he saw an open field in possession of the Union forces on the second day over which the Confederates had have been possible to walk across it in any direction, stepping on dead bodies without a foot touch ing the ground, and all the small undergrowth had been cut down by bullets. Varus fell with his Roman le gions in the dark Teutoburg Forest and there was no friendly hand to bury them. Six years afterwards their comrades sought the spot and finding their bones interred them with solemn mili tary honors. - For. more than half a century the Confederate dead have lain in the unmarked trenches at Shi loh, and though we feel that im mortal shrouds have been woven for them, we long for a visible token to commemorate their va lor. and rejoice that the dav will soon come when "Shiloh Monu ment will mark the snot wW our heroes fell. CASE AFTER CASE Plenty More Like This In Newton. Scores of Newton peonle ran tell you about Doan's via - " niuucv Pills. Many a happy citizen makes a statement of his exper ience. Here is a c- ,v What better proof of merit can be had than such endorsement. J. E. Thornburg, GaitherAve., Newton, says: "I had been bad off with kidney and bladder trouble. I had a dull, heavy feel- jng m my back which wom'pd me a lot I "suffered from a steady pain in my loins. I suspected my kidneys and began taking Doan's Kidney Pills. One box removed the pains and other symptoms of kidney trouble." Price 50c. at ali dealers. Don't simply ask for a kidney remedy get Doan's Kidney Pills -the same that Mr. Thorneburg had. roster-Mnburn Co.. Props.. Buf falo, N. Y. We observ e that the Republi can newspapers and politicians are making no efforts in the direction of educating the far mers to believe that the high price of wheat is due to the Dem ocrats, but they are working overtime in an effort to induce the consumers to believe that any addition to the price of bread is a crime directly traceable to a Democratic administration at Washington. Greensboro Pa triot Harsh physics react, weaken the bow el , wiil lead to ch ronic constipation. D-jaiTs Regulet"? operate easily 25c a tx at r 11 stores. Michigan Democrats nomina ted by acclamation a ticket for the spring election and endorsed, in most emphatic terms, the ad ministration of President Wilson at their State convention at Lans ing this week. The platform adopted commended the stand of president Wilson on the ship purchase bill and denounced the Republican opposition to the measure as being un-American and against American prosperity. IT SHOULD BE Di EVERY HOME. Coble's Croup and Pneumonia Remedy is the new liquid extern al remedy for Croup, Coughs. Pneumonia, Sore Throat and al! Cold Troubles, it being liquid it is much easier to use than a Salve and with much quicker results. j You just rub it on and inhale the j vapors while it penetrates. Can be used m an atomizer tor ia tarrh. It relieves instantly. If it does not vou get your money back. 25c" 50c and S1.00 sizes. Sold on a gurantee by all drug stores. Some time ago a negro man sued a white man in Granville county for alienating the affec tions of his wife and the jury srave the nesrro a verdict of $8,000. Don't get excited. A similar case is pending in this county right now, but it is understood to be in a fair way to be compro mised. Greensboro Record. Hov Mr. Davis Got Rid of a Bad Cough. "Same time ago I had a very bad cough'wiItesLisT.Dawis.Bbckwater, Del. "Mj brother McCabe Davis gave me a small bott'e of Chamberlain's Cough Remedy. After taking this I bonght half a dozen bottles of it but onW used one of thern as the cough left me'andl have net been troubled since. Obtainable everywhere. There seems to be agreement in Europe that whatever little civilization there was m civil ized" warfare has gone dv the board. There is. however, a . thti remnant ot satisiacuuu fact that each side blames tne other theretor. - wr News. TRY Coble's Croup and Pneu- what we claim you get jour money back. J