Hour by hour opposed to an enemy constantly reenforced, our ranks were perceptibly thinned under the increasing, withering fire of the enemy; and, by 12 M. [of the second day], 18 hours of hard fighting had sensibly exhausted a large number; my last reserves had necessarily been disposed of; and the enemy was evidently receiving fresh reeforcements after each repulse; accordingly, about 1 P. M., I determined to withdraw from so unequal a conflict; securing such of the results of the victory of the day before as were practicable.This is pretty fair, but not strictly accordant with the dispatch which
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when the battery was charged by infantry; who were easily repelled by Col. Morgan L. Smith's brigade.
Meantime, Gen. Sherman, who had waited for the sound of Buell's guns upon the main Corinth road, advanced at 8 A. M., steadily and slowly, under fire, until lie reached the point where the Corinth road crosses the line of McClernand's abandoned camps, and saw Willich's regiment, on his right, fighting gallantly for the possession of a point of timber some 500 yards east of Shiloh church.
Hence the Rebel army could be seen re-forming its lines to the southward, with a battery by the church, and another near the Hamburg road, pouring grape and canister into any column of our troops that advanced upon that green point of timber whence Willich's regiment had just been repulsed, but into which one of McCook's brigades (Rousseau's) was now advancing.
Directing the fire of two 24-pound howitzers of McAllister's battery upon the Rebel guns, Sherman formed his two brigades (David Stuart's, now commanded by Col. T. Kilby Smith, and Col. Buckland's) to advance in line with Rousseau; which they did superbly, sweeping every thing before them.
At 4 P. M., our soldiers held the original front line whence we had been so hurriedly driven 34 hours before; and the whole Rebel army was retreating, unpursued, on Corinth.1 Gen. Sherman, with two brigades and the cavalry, went out a few miles next morning on the Corinth road, and had a smart skirmish with a small Rebel force, mainly of cavalry, which he repulsed, destroying a camp, and capturing a hospital, wherein lie found 280 Confederate and 50 Union wounded; returning with the former to his camp near Shiloh next morning.
Beauregard, in his official report, states that his effective force had now been reduced, “from exhaustion and other causes, from 40,000 to less than 20,000 men ;” and adds:
1 “An impressed New-Yorker” says:
No heroism of officers or men could avail to stay the advance of the Federal troops. At 3 P. M., the Confederates decided on a retreat to Corinth ; and Gen. Breckinridge, strengthened by three regiments of cavalry — Forrest's, Adams's, and the Texas Rangers, raising his effective force to 12,000 men — received orders to protect the rear. By 4 P. M., the Confederates were in full retreat. The main body of the army passed silently and swiftly along the road toward Corinth; our division bringing up the rear, determined to make a desperate stand if pursued. At this time, the Union forces might have closed in upon our retreating columns and cut off Breekinridge's division, and perhaps captured it. A Federal battery threw some shells, as a feeler, across the road on which we were retreating, between our division and the main body; but no reply was made to them, as this would have betrayed our position. We passed on with little opposition or loss, and by 5 o'clock had reached a point one and a half miles nearer Corinth than the point of attack Sabbath morning. Up to this time, the pursuit seemed feeble, and the Confederates were surprised that the victorious Federals made no more of their advantage. Nor is it yet understood why the pursuit was not pressed. A rapid and persistent pursuit would have created a complete rout of the now broken, weary, and dispirited Rebels. Two hours more of such fighting as Buell's fresh men could have made would have demoralized and destroyed Beauregard's army. For some reason, this was not done; and night closed the battle.
Hartford. Published by O. D. Chase and Company. 1866.
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