April 6, 1862. |
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| W. J. Hardee. |
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o'clock, and, after a deliberation of two hours, it was resolved to strike their enemy a blow before the dawn.
Pointing toward the Union camp, at the close of the council, Beauregard said: “Gentlemen, we sleep in the enemy's camp to-morrow night.”
1
The greatest precautions were now taken by the Confederates to prevent any knowledge of their presence reaching the Nationals.
No one was permitted to leave the camp, and no fires were allowed, excepting in holes in the ground.
It was a chilly and cheerless night, and many of the soldiers lay down in the gloom supperless.
At three o'clock in the morning
the whole army was in marching order, in three lines of battle, the first and second extending from Owl Creek on the left to Lick Creek on the right, a distance of about three miles, supported by the third and a reserve.
The first line was commanded by General Hardee, and was composed of his own corps and Gladden's brigade of Bragg's corps, with artillery following by the main road to Pittsburg Landing.
The cavalry was in the rear and on the wings.
Bragg's corps, composing the second line, followed in the same order, at the distance of five hundred yards. At the distance of about eight hundred yards behind Bragg was Polk's corps; in lines of brigades, deployed with their batteries in rear of each brigade, also moving on the Pittsburg Landing road, supported by cavalry on the left wing.
The reserves, commanded by Breckinridge, closely followed Polk's (third) line, its right wing supported by cavalry.
In this order the Confederate army was slowly advancing to battle early on Sunday morning, the 6th of April,2 over the rolling wooded country, while the Nationals were reposing
in fancied security.
It was one of the most delightful of those spring mornings, which so often give exquisite pleasure to the dwellers in that region; and he who in the gray dawn of that eventful day should have stood at the house of the widow Rey, on a branch of the Owl Creek, within the sound of voices of Sherman's camp near the Shiloh Meeting-house, would not have believed a prophecy that within an hour that Sabbath stillness would be broken by the tumult of battle, and those quiet woods just robed in the most delicate green, and enlivened by the songs of birds, would within sixty minutes be filled with sulphureous smoke, and all the hideous sounds
1 Statement of “An impressed New Yorker” (Thirtee Months in the Rebel Army, page 147), who was on Breckinridges staff, and was present at the council.
2 General Johnston issued a stirring order to his troops when they were about to move, saying: “I have put you in motion to offer battle to the invaders of your country. With resolution and disciplined valor, becoming men fighting as you are, for all that is worth living or dying for, you can but march to decisive victory over the agrarian mercenaries who have been sent to despoil you of your liberties, your property, and your honor.” He told them that the eyes and hopes of eight millions of people were resting upon them, and assured them that their generals would lead them to victory.
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