Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Chapter XXII: Operations in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Mississippi, North Alabama, and Southwest Virginia. March 4-June 10, 1862.
Lieut. Col. Robert N. Scott, Ed.

I respectfully submit the following report of the operations of the Sixteenth Regiment Louisiana Volunteers in the action at Shiloh, on the 6th and 7th instant, the command of which regiment had devolved upon me in consequence of the absence, on duty, of Lieutenant-Colonel Mason and the assignment to Col. Preston Pond, jr., of the command of the Third Brigade, General Ruggles' division:

The extraordinary degree of sickness prevalent in camp, and the absence of Company B, left for guard duty at Corinth, had diminished the effective force of the regiment upon entering the engagement to 330 rank and file.

The participation of the regiment in the action of Sunday, the 6th, though it was frequently exposed to the fire of the enemy during the morning and was subjected to occasional losses in consequence of its exposure, was not, perhaps, sufficiently important to justify a special notice of its movements until in the afternoon, when a portion of the brigade, including the Sixteenth Regiment, was ordered to charge one or more of the enemy's batteries, the position and strength of which were evidently unknown or gravely misapprehended. The accomplishment of this order proved to be impracticable, and the effort to execute it resulted in our repulse, with considerable loss of killed and wounded.

Early on the morning of the 7th the battle was renewed by the opening of one of the enemy's batteries upon us from a concealed point in the woods near the grounds upon which the regiment had bivouacked during the previous night. Having retired to a more favorable position, where line of battle was formed, the regiment, in conjunction with the balance of the brigade, was immediately moved forward to meet the advancing columns of the enemy.

Becoming thus engaged at an early hour in the morning of the 7th, the regiment continued in active and efficient service until the cessation of hostilities in the afternoon, the locality of its operations varying but little during the day.

The withdrawal of our forces having been ordered at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the regiment, in an exhausted and reduced condition, rejoined the brigade, from which it had been temporarily separated, and fell back in the direction of Monterey.

For the casualties of this regiment reference is made to the report of the killed, wounded, and missing,¹ rendered in conformity with Orders, No.--.