Frantic with fright.
General Nelson, leading the advance troops of the rescuing force, describes them as ‘cowering under the river banks—frantic with fright and utterly demoralized.’
And yet, under the influence of a large army of fresh troops,
Grant had brought back into line for the second days' battle, these same demoralized men, and they fought with a heroism that atoned for their conduct on the first day.
General Grant says that no better soldiers ever marched to battle than some of the men who on the first day at
Shiloh fled panic-stricken from the field.
The day after the
battle of Shiloh, when the
Confederates had retired to their own defensive lines at
Corinth,
General Grant telegraphed to
Halleck: ‘It would be demoralizing upon our troops here to be forced to retire upon the opposite bank of the river, and unsafe to remain on this many weeks without large reinforcements.’
Let it be remembered that
Buell's army was still with him when he sent that dispatch.
Although the
Confederate attempt to crush
Grant's army and then recover all that had been lost by the fall of
Fort Donelson, had failed,
Shiloh put such a check upon the
Federal advance in the
West, that after a half-hearted form and movement on their part to
Corinth and occultation of that place, the
Confederates, now under
Bragg, made a bold march northward, which carried their lines for a while even to the
Ohio river, and checked the
Federal tide of the invasion for a year.
Allow me to add this much:
General Longstreet was not at the
battle of Shiloh, but was in
Virginia at that very time, assisting
General Joseph E. Johnston in checking the advance of
General McClellan.
