On Saturday the enemy's cavalry was again very bold, coming well down to our front, yet I did not believe they designed anything but a strong demonstration. * * * * ‘About 8 A. M. (Sunday) I saw the glistening bayonets of heavy masses of infantry to our left front in the woods beyond the small stream alluded to, and became satisfied for the first time that the enemy designed a determined attack on our whole camp.’It is unnecessary to do more than call attention to some most absurd points made by General Sherman. No rifle pits were dug or abattis laid down, because the army regulations stood in the way. The line did not occupy too much ground, although space enough had been left for Buell's forces. Although all the elements of an army were known to be in the front on Friday, yet no one knew its destination, and even General Sherman had to guess its purpose. And for all this bungling, blundering, and criminal
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the pickets a few days after the battle, rode over the line from which the rebels moved to the attack.
Every where were signs of the deliberation with which the enemy formed his forces.
The routes by which each corps and division of the first line was to march to its position in the woods, were blazed upon the trees, and the entire force of the enemy went into line for the attack wholly undisturbed, and with as much order and precision, as if forming upon markers for a grand review.
And the time that the enemy was thus forming his lines, scarcely out of rifled cannon range, ‘passed in our camps,’ says General Sherman, ‘without any unusual event.’
Enough has been presented to show upon how slight a foundation that position of the book is built, by which General Sherman seeks to controvert the idea that ‘our army was taken, completely by surprise’ at Shiloh.
Two brief extracts from his own official report of the battle, dated on the field, April 10th, will show on what day and at what hour he, the trusted officer on the field, became satisfied that the rebels intended to attack:
Cincinnati: Wilstach, Baldwin & Co. 1875.
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