Alfred Roman, The military operations of General Beauregard in the war between the states, 1861 to 1865

[542] ‘B;’ our Commander-in-Chief, General A. S. Johnston, fell, mortally wounded, and died on the field at 2.30 P. M., after having shown the highest qualities of the commander, and a personal intrepidity that inspired all around him and gave resistless impulsion to his columns at critical moments.

The chief command then devolved upon me, though at the time I was greatly prostrated, and suffering from the prolonged sickness with which I had been afflicted since early in February. The responsibility was one which in my physical condition I would have gladly avoided, though cast upon me when our forces were successfully pushing the enemy back upon the Tennessee River, and though supported on the immediate field by such corps commanders as Major-Generals Polk, Bragg, and Hardee, and Brigadier-General Breckinridge commanding the reserve.

It was after 6 o'clock P. M., as before said, when the enemy's last position was carried, and his forces finally broke and sought refuge behind a commanding eminence covering the Pittsburg Landings, not more than half a mile distant, and under the guns of the gunboats, which opened on our eager columns a fierce and annoying fire, with shot and shell of the heaviest description. Darkness was close at hand, officers and men were exhausted by a combat of over twelve hours without food, and jaded by the march of the preceding day through mud and water; it was therefore impossible to collect the rich and opportune spoils of war scattered broadcast on the field left in our possession, and impracticable to make any effective disposition for their removal to the rear.

I accordingly established my headquarters at the church of Shiloh, in the enemy's encampments, with Major-General Bragg, and directed our troops to sleep on their arms, in such positions in advance and rear as corps commanders should determine; hoping, from news received by a special despatch, that delays had been encountered by General Buell in his march from Columbia, and that his main force, therefore, could not reach the field of battle in time to save General Grant's shattered, fugitive forces from capture or destruction on the following day.

During the night the rain fell in torrents, adding to the discomforts and harassed condition of the men; the enemy, moreover, had broken their rest by a discharge, at measured intervals, of heavy shell thrown from the gunboats; therefore, on the following morning the troops under my command were not in condition to cope with an equal force of fresh troops, armed and equipped like our adversary, in the immediate possession of his depots, and sheltered by such an auxiliary as the enemy's gunboats.

About 6 o'clock on the morning of the 7th of April, however, a hot fire of musketry and artillery, opened from the enemy's quarter on our advanced line, assured me of the junction of his forces, and soon the battle raged with a fury which satisfied me I was attacked by a largely superior force. But from the onset our troops, notwithstanding our fatigue and losses from the battle of the day before, exhibited the most cheering, veteran-like steadiness. On the right and centre the enemy was repulsed in every attempt he made with his heavy columns in that quarter of the field. On the left, however, and nearest to the points of arrival of his reinforcements, he drove forward line after line of