[616] rode off, that, if it should be necessary to communicate with him or for him to do anything, he would be found in his ambulance in bed. Governor Harris, knowing this, and how feeble General Beauregard's health was, went first to his headquarters-just in the rear of where the army had deployed into line the evening before. Beauregard and his staff were gone on horseback in the direction of Shiloh Church. He found them there. The Governor told General Beauregard that General Johnston had been killed. Beauregard expressed regret, and then remarked, “Everything else seems to be going on well on the right.” Governor Harris assented. “Then,” said Beauregard, “the battle may as well go on.” The Governor replied that he certainly thought it ought. He offered his services to Beauregard, and they were courteously accepted. General Beauregard then remained where he was, waiting the issue of events.
Iii.-afternoon.
Up to the moment of the death of the commander-in-chief, the battle presented two features, at first sight incongruous and almost incompatible. The first of these was the dislocation of commands by the pushing forward of the second and third lines into the intervals of the first, and, by the shifting fortunes of the field, resulting in an effect like the shuffling of cards. The other was the most perfect regularity in the development of the plan of battle. In all the seeming confusion, there was the predominance of intelligent design; a master-mind, keeping in clear view its purpose, sought the weak point in the defense, and, finding it on the enemy's left, kept turning that flank. With the disadvantage of inferior numbers, General Johnston brought to bear a superior force on each particular point, and, by a series of consecutive blows, repeated with great rapidity and strength, broke the Federal army to pieces. General Duke makes the following intelligent comments on the battle. He says:The corps of Hardee, Bragg, and Polk, were now striving abreast, or mingled with each other. In reading the reports of the Confederate generals, frequent allusion will be found to regiments and brigades fighting without “head or orders.” One commander would sometimes direct the movements of troops belonging to another. At this phase of the struggle, the narrative should dwell more upon “the biographies of the regiments than the history of the battle.” But the wise arrangement of the lines and the instructions given subordinate commanders insured harmonious action and the desired result. Each brigade commander was ordered, when he became disengaged, to seek and attack the nearest enemy; to pass the flank of every stubborn hostile force
