Shiloh,
Tennessee
April 6, 1862
Manfred Herrmann slouched
against the crinkled bark of an ancient hickory tree at the verge of a dense
grove not far from the western shore of the Tennessee River and nudged the
luminous petals of a fire pink with a black-powder-smudged finger. He twisted
the fragile green stem between thumb and finger to spin the jagged tips of the
petals against his palm, and briefly enjoyed the gentle touch of the scarlet
flower. He pressed the fluorescent petals against his scraggly brown moustache
and breathed in the nectar’s sweet aroma, then exhaled the fragrant air with a
satisfying whoosh.
“Silene Virginica.”
Manfred stroked one of the pedals just as Sergeant-Major Gallagher stopped in front of him. “Beg pardon?”
“I said, Corporal
Herrmann, Silene Virginica. The scientific name of the flower you’re impaling
on the unkempt bristles of your moustache. Also known, to the less educated of
the Seventh Iowa, as the fire pink.”
“It’s Silene Virginica,
not saloon veronica, and please refer to me as a botanist, not a plant
collector.”
“A bottomless. Of course Sergeant-Major. Please accept my apology. I
will use the correct title from now on.”
The sergeant-major
stiffened. “Corporal Herrmann, your morning botany lesson has concluded, and I
don’t want to put you at any further risk of a general court-martial. Now round
up your squad for parade and inspection. Colonel James
M. Tuttle requires assurance that the brigade under his command
can still march after the sloppy maneuvering he witnessed from Pittsburg
Landing to our present bivouac.”
Corporal Herrmann bent
the stem of the fire pink to hold it in place. “Yes sir, but it’s not yet six
in the morning.”
Sergeant-Major Gallagher
grinned. “It is not our place to question the wisdom of the colonel. Now form
your men up for the parade, and look sharp about it.”
With the haranguing of
lieutenants and sergeants, the ten companies of the Seventh Iowa Infantry
Regiment—over 500 strong—poured from the bivouac of neatly arranged white
canvas tents and formed loosely into four long files. A captain nodded, and
Sergeant Gallagher bellowed: “By file, right, dress!” and each file stepped
forward in succession and shuffled into smart alignment. With this maneuver
completed and all eyes snapped forward, Sergeant-Major Gallagher continued:
“Shoulder, arms!” and the men of the 7th Iowa heaved over 500 Springfield
rifles and muskets into the air and snapped them against shoulders toughened by
long hours of drill. When the strangely muted echo of hundreds of steel barrels
chafing against wool jackets had faded, Sergeant-Major Gallagher intoned:
“Company, right, face!” and the men of the 7th Iowa pivoted on heel and toe and
snapped their feet together. With the company now facing the approved
direction, Sergeant-Major Gallagher barked: “Mark time, march!” and the men of
the 7th Iowa commenced marching in place, rhythmically stamping booted feet
against the soggy ground. After waiting exactly six steps to allow the cadence
of footfalls to synchronize, Sergeant-Major Gallagher prompted: “Forward,
march!” and the men of the 7th Iowa stepped off. The ten companies of the 7th
Iowa fell into line behind the men of the 14th and 12th Infantry Regiments, and
the men of the 2nd Iowa Infantry Regiment fell into line behind them,
completing the long blue column of the Union Army’s First Brigade under the
command of Colonel James M. Tuttle, Second Division under the command of
Brigadier General W. H. L. Wallace.
Manfred peeked down at
his flower several times to admire the still vibrant red petals. He thought of
pulling the flower up from the button hole to enjoy the soothing fragrance
again, but worried he might fall out of step and invoke the wrath of the
sergeant-major. He adjusted his spacing from the man marching in front, and
then checked his alignment in the rank. After taking another dozen strides, he
noticed several men sitting on horses about a hundred yards ahead. He stretched
his neck and raised his chin and squinted.
The soldier marching to
his right spat a slimy gob of tobacco before declaring, “That there’s General
W. H. L. Wallace, leader of this here division we’re a part of.”
Manfred lowered his chin.
“You don’t say. I think I was about to figure it out for myself. My vision just
gets a little blurry when we march.”
Not losing a step, the
soldier spat again and grinned. “Maybe you need some of them fancy spectacles if
you can’t see who’s leading the division.”
Manfred now reached
within two-hundred feet from the seated horsemen, and still could not see the
faces clearly or distinguish the emblems of rank on the uniforms. “I don’t need
any spectacles. I can see just fine.”
“Couldn’t see General W. H.
L. Wallace sitting high up off the ground on a horse. Don’t suppose you can see
him now.”
“I’m about to see him.”
“Don’t look like you is
about to see anything. Like I said, you ought to get some of them fancy
spectacles.”
Manfred fumed, “See here,
farm boy, I don’t need any fancy—” A cascading volley of musket-fire rumbled in
the distance behind and to the left of the marching brigade and echoed through
the dense hickory and oak trees, interrupting the delivery of Manfred’s angry
retort. Manfred gazed up at the serene clouds. A second volley reverberated
through the dense woods.
Surprised by the sudden
and unexpected noise, the tobacco-chewing farm boy swallowed some of the brown
goo. “Must be Union troops taking some early morning target practice.”
Still angry, Manfred
snarled, “And now you’re an expert on the daily activities of the whole Union
Army?”
At least three, maybe
four trumpets shrilled to the southwest, and then a third volley chattered.
Manfred listened for a fourth volley, but after a brief silence—no more than 10
seconds—scattered and chaotic rifle and musket fire erupted across the western
horizon and rattled through the thickets of trees. The sound grew ominously
louder with each footfall of the marching troops now passing on parade in front
of the mounted officers.
Sergeant-Major Gallagher
boomed, “Companies…halt!” and the men of the 7th Iowa came to a rolling
standstill. Sergeants up and down the line echoed the same command to the other
regiments of the First Brigade. Manfred now stood close enough to the group of
men sitting on horses to recognize General W. H. L. Wallace. With some
pleasure, he also identified Colonel Tuttle. He watched the general and the
colonel and the other men surrounding them as they took turns standing up in
their stirrups and pointing into the trees separating the regiment from the
approaching commotion.
A sweat-lathered horse
ridden by an agitated corporal burst from the trees and kicked up ragged chunks
of muddy ground as it galloped along the western side of the long files of the
7th Iowa. When he arrived
directly across from General W. H. L. Wallace and his entourage, the corporal
pulled the horse up and yanked the snorting animal to the right and drove it
between two of the ranks of the 7th Iowa, shoving shouting men to either side
and nearly trampling their feet. The corporal trotted up to General W. H. L.
Wallace, saluted, opened a black pouch slung over his back, pulled out a folded
sheet of paper, and shoved it into the general’s hand. The general opened the
paper and read whatever message someone had scrawled on the page, folded it up again,
and crumpled it in his hand. General W. H. L. Wallace leaned sideways in his
saddle and spoke into the ear of Colonel Tuttle. Colonel Tuttle pulled his
mount out of the line of officers and rode over to the bugler standing to his
right. He bent down in his saddle and spoke into the top of the bugler’s cap.
The bugler saluted, spit twice, wetted his lips, raised the polished instrument
to his mouth, and sounded the allegro eighth and sixteenth note command for
“quick time.” The four regiments of the First Brigade tramped ahead in a
rolling surge.
Manfred struggled to
match step with the men around him. He nearly stumbled to the muddy ground when
the man behind him kicked the back of his boot. He glanced to his side and the
farm boy grinned tobacco-stained teeth back at him. When he had finally settled
into a comfortable pace, the bugler sounded the allegro sixteenth and
dotted-sixteenth note melody to signal “double quick time,” and the 14th, 12th,
7th, and 2nd Iowa Infantry Regiments accelerated in turn. Manfred nearly fell
again when the regiment climbed over a bushy hillock and splashed across the
slimy stones of a shallow steam. The four long files separated when the men
swarmed around a copse of tangled oaks, then broke apart completely as the regiment
stumbled across a deeper stream. Manfred’s boots filled with icy water and
water splashed against his crotch. When the men had reached the swampy ground
beyond the stream, the four files of the 7th Iowa reformed behind the 12th Iowa
before following a long, sweeping arc to the left. Manfred trotted along; muddy
water squished from holes in the leather soles of his boots and his Springfield
rifle slapped against his shoulder. The long column of the First Brigade
emerged from the swampy ground and curved across the Hamburg-Savannah Road where
it roughly paralleled the southerly-flowing Tennessee River. The column
continued to veer until it pointed southwest and then south and then southeast.
As the long files of men completed a final sweep and began to straighten, they
quick-stepped into the scattered paths of wounded soldiers retreating east from
the remnants of their shattered regiment. Hundreds of discouraged men trudged through
the advancing Iowa regiments—alone, in pairs, in small clusters, limping, bent
over, assisted by other men, on makeshift crutches, dragging rifles, empty
handed, torn and blood soaked. The bugler screeched the presto sixteenth note
call to signal halt. Sergeants and lieutenants darted along the lines screaming
commands to form a line of battle two ranks deep. The four regiments of the
First Brigade quickly reformed into a pair of ragged lines facing
southwesterly. Muskets and rifles crackled beyond the forest of oaks and
hickories, much closer than before—and the men waited.
Manfred spoke to the farm
boy, miraculously still standing to his right. “That was a hell of a run. I
didn’t think I was going to make it across the second stream. Nearly fell in
the deep water.”
The farm boy grinned and
spat a lump of chewed tobacco spit in front of Manfred’s muddy boots. “I didn’t
think you was going to make it neither, seeing how you can’t see much of what’s
going on right in front of your own nose.”
Manfred’s anger had
diminished while crossing the swamps north of the second stream, and he took no
offense. “Did you get a look at those stragglers? They’d been shot up pretty—”
The bugler sounded the
lilting eighth and quarter notes in two-four meter to signal the command to
“fix bayonets,” and four regiments of bayonets rattled metallically as men yanked
them from leather scabbards and rammed them into place. The bugler sounded
presto quarter and eighth notes in six-eight time to call the Iowa men to move
“forward,” and the two-rank-deep line of battle, nearly a thousand yards long, marched
over the uneven ground and advanced raggedly through the oak and hickory trees
and tangled underbrush. A minie ball zinged overhead, and then another, and
then two or three in quick succession, and as the shadows of the forest slowly
gave way to the overcast light of an open field, Manfred Herrmann and the
tobacco-chewing farm boy and the men of the 7th Iowa Infantry Regiment reached
the shoulder of a sunken road just beyond the boundary of the trees. The field
swept away from the road and revealed a battleground shrouded in bloody carnage
and swirling smoke. The 12th and 14th Regiments formed the line of battle just
inside the tree line along the sunken road to the left, and the two ranks of the
2nd Iowa formed to the right. The bugler trumpeted the command to halt, and the
men settled into position. Before Manfred’s pounding heart had begun to slow,
two long gray lines of Confederate infantry issued from the blanket of smoke
less than 200 yards away and marched directly toward the 12th and 14th
Regiments—the new left flank of the First Brigade.
♦ ♦ ♦
Ethan Plantagenet, a
first lieutenant with the 8th Texas Cavalry, casually bent his knee over the
smoothly-curved leather horn of his black saddle. He squinted through chaotic
swirls of gloomy smoke to better observe the four infantry regiments of
Brigadier General T. C. Hinden’s First Brigade advance in long lines across an
open field toward groves of oak and hickory just beyond a sunken road.
Artillery boomed far away to the right. After first surprising and then
overrunning the Union encampment in the dappled early morning light, the Army
of the Mississippi now continued its relentless advance to the Tennessee River
without meeting any organized resistance from the retreating Union troops. The
chaotic Federal retreat promised the possibility of a complete rout. He tugged
his grandfather’s watch from an inside pocket and flipped open the
finely-engraved cover with a white-leather-gloved thumb. He admired the
miniature photograph of his late wife before checking the time. Not yet nine.
At this pace of advance, forward Confederate units should reach the Tennessee
by mid-afternoon. He cherished the idea of dinner on the peaceful banks of the
river. Lieutenant Plantagenet lowered his foot to the stirrup and galloped back
to his regiment.
♦ ♦ ♦
Sergeant-Major Gallagher strolled purposefully along the front of the first rank of the 7th Iowa, stopping several times to contemplate the advancing Confederate infantry. He repeated the same commands at each new platoon. “Hold your ground. Do not yield. Hold your ground. Do not yield. Hold your….” When he reached Manfred’s platoon, he stopped again, but not to observe the approaching infantry—which had suddenly halted and was now preparing to fire on the 12th and 14th Iowa. “Corporal Herrmann. Do you still have your fire pink?”
Manfred watched the first
rank of Rebel infantry take aim. “Yes, Sergeant-Major. I still have it.” He
glanced down at the flower and a wave of smoke exploded along the Rebel line.
Seconds later, the men of the 12th Iowa (to his left) answered with a deafening
crackle of rifle fire. Dozens of Rebel soldiers crumpled to the ground.
Sergeant-Major Gallagher
did not flinch. “Do you perchance remember the scientific name I taught you
this morning?”
Manfred thought back on
his early morning conversation. He watched the second rank of Rebel infantry
lower muskets and take aim. “Yes I do, Sergeant-Major. It is Silene Virginica.”
A second wave of billowing smoke ejected from the line, and again the 12th Iowa
responded in kind. Dozens more Rebel soldiers collapsed in scattered mounds
across the front of the diminishing line.
Sergeant-Major Gallagher
stepped behind the ranks of the 7th Iowa and then faced the battlefield. “Very
good Corporal Herrmann. But now we have work to do.” A trumpet shrilled and the
Confederates, bayonets flashing, surged into a running charge. The sound of a
thousand stamping feet and whooping voices washed across the field and crashed
against the trees.
Sergeant-Major Gallagher
coughed to clear his throat, then boomed, “Fire by rank…company…left oblique.”
The two ranks of the 7th Iowa pressed over 500 Springfield rifles and muskets
against their shoulders and swung to the left. Sergeant-Major Gallagher calmly
observed the charging enemy troops as they approached the lethal field of fire
he now prepared for them. “Front rank…aim….” He paused until a sufficient
number of Confederates had entered the killing zone. “Fire! Load!” Hundreds of
minie balls spewed across the open field to tear the flesh and break the bones
of the advancing men. A Confederate officer waved his saber wildly in the air
and screamed at his men to form a new line. A hundred men or more formed a
ragged line facing the 7th Iowa and frantically poured black powder into hungry
muskets and rammed lead balls into place. Sergeant-Major Gallagher continued
without emotion. “Rear rank…aim….” This time he did not pause. “Fire! Load!”
After firing with the
second rank, Manfred frantically plucked a fresh paper cartridge from the
black-leather box slung over his shoulder. He used his teeth to tear off the
end of the cartridge with the minie ball. He poured black powder from the
cartridge into the barrel of his Springfield Rifle, then extracted the ball
from his mouth with calloused thumb and finger and pressed it into the waiting
barrel. He spit the paper cartridge remnant to the ground and rammed the ball
and powder into place. He flipped open the lid of a small leather box attached
to his belt and removed a percussion cap. His hand trembled and the cap fell to
the ground. Without hesitation, he pinched out another, cocked the hammer one
click, pressed the cap into place, and fully cocked the hammer. As he waited for the next command he peeked
over his shoulder; the tobacco-chewing farm boy grinned at him again. Before
Manfred could look away the farm boy’s head fulminated, showering blood and
teeth and a chunk of nose across Manfred’s uniform. The farm boy, the side of
his face shredded by a Rebel minie ball, tried to remind Manfred about the
fancy spectacles but only gurgled incoherently before staggering backwards and
stumbling over a rotten log.
Sergeant-Major Gallagher
continued, “First rank…aim…Fire! Load!”
More Confederate soldiers
fell to the ground, adding to the grim human litter now choking the open field.
The Confederate officer waved his saber at the 7th Iowa and a bugle shrilled
again. Hundreds of gray men pulled away from the assault of the 12th and 14th
Iowa Regiments and charged toward Manfred’s position.
Sergeant-Major Gallagher
did not break his melodic cadence. When the charging Rebels reached within 50
yards of the 7th Iowa, he bellowed, “Second rank….” The Rebels reached within
40 yards. “Aim….” The Rebels reached within 30 yards. Sergeant-Major Gallagher
waited, and a sweaty spasm convulsed across Manfred’s back and rolled up his
neck when he pressed his finger against the trigger. The rebels reached within
20 yards, and Manfred identified the delicate face of a young boy. “Fire!” The
attacking Rebels vanished in a blanket of smoke, but quickly broke through the
murky shroud and dove into the first rank of the 7th Iowa Infantry Regiment.
The man in front of Manfred hissed when a Rebel bayonet stabbed through his gut
and burst from his back. When the man slid off the blade and fell to the
ground, he revealed the young boy Manfred had seen before the obscuring smoke
had swallowed him up. The young boy aimed his bloody bayonet and lunged, but
Manfred knocked the boy’s musket to the side before swinging his rifle butt
around to slam the boy to the ground. When the boy tried to stand Manfred
kicked him to the ground again and pressed the sharp tip of his bayonet against
the boy’s chest, just below the throat. Manfred allowed a moment to appreciate
the boy’s dirt-smudged face, tangled brown hair, and age—fifteen, maybe sixteen
at the most—and while tears bathed the boy’s dirty cheeks, Manfred thrust the
bayonet in. Then, as his hands trembled and the men of the 7th Iowa drove back
the Rebel assault, Manfred watched the young boy choke on his own blood and the
light fade from his brown eyes.
Excerpt from
A Glorious History of the American West
A Glorious History of the American West
by
Muireall Anne Ravenscroft
Shiloh: Prelude to
the Decline of the Confederacy
The Battle of
Shiloh, the first significant incursion of the Union Army into the Confederate
West, is little understood and often misrepresented in the written histories of
the American Civil War. Other engagements, such as Gettysburg or
Chancellorsville, are often cited as more important, but my research has led me
to this conclusion: Shiloh, also referred to as The Battle of Pittsburg
Landing, was truly the decisive turning point of the Civil War. One need only
refer to General Ulysses S. Grant’s own memoir in which he declares that the
battle was “...more persistently misunderstood, than any other engagement
between National and Confederate troops during the entire rebellion....” to
appreciate the fundamental underpinning of my assertion. Further, what appeared
early in the day of April 6, 1862 as a potential rout -- after a dramatic
early-morning surprise attack by Rebel infantry on the bivouacked Federals --
quickly transposed into a stunning Confederate loss by the conclusion of
hostilities on April 7th, a loss from which the South, in my opinion, never recovered.
A significant
aspect of Shiloh is the level of carnage achieved by green troops, a level not
previously experienced in the war. The typical Confederate soldier marching
from Corinth, Mississippi to the battleground of Shiloh had little or no combat
experience and was poorly armed (some carried pikes instead of rifles), while
roughly half of opposing Federal troops had not experienced actual combat. And
yet, this pivotal and epic battle -- which pitted approximately 65,000 men of
the Union Armies of the Tennessee (General Ulysses S. Grant) and of the Ohio
(Major General Don Carlos Buell) against the nearly 45,000 men of the recently-formed
Confederate Army of the Mississippi (General Albert Sidney Johnston and General
P. G. T. Beauregard) -- resulted in casualties of nearly 24,000 men killed,
missing, or wounded in a scant two days of persistently brutal conflict.
In fairness to the
combatants, much of the fog of war (a phrase I have borrowed from Clausewitz)
that plagued the battle (and likely contributed to the level of bloodshed) can
be attributed to the difficult terrain of southwest Tennessee. The undulating,
heavily-wooded land to the west of the Tennessee River rises at points to
bluffs more than 150 feet above the river plane and dives into countless deep
ravines. The numerous tributaries of the three primary streams bounding the
area -- Lick Creek to the south; Owl and Snake Creeks to the north --
crisscross the battleground. Swamps spread in scattered patches across the
landscape, and were so characteristic of the terrain as to become a primary
focus of Confederate strategy: to cut the Federals off from retreat to the
Tennessee River and drive them northwest into the swamps of Owl Creek. Lastly,
heavy rains days before the conflict rendered the few available roads, poor
enough in decent weather, nearly impassable, especially by a large army
attempting to surprise the enemy through quick deployment. In fact, General
Johnston had originally intended to attack on April 4th, but was delayed until
the 6th because of the condition of the Western Corinth Road. It was, according
to Colonel Wills De Hass (commander of the 77th Ohio Infantry during the battle
of Shiloh), “...the worst possible battleground.”
Even given these
many impediments to success, the Confederates still might have achieved victory
were it not for an implausible event. At mid-afternoon of the first day (around
2:30 pm), while leading the advance on the Union left flank, General Albert
Sidney Johnston, the Army of the Mississippi’s most experienced and effective
combat leader, was struck in the leg by a stray minie ball. An artery severed
and his boot filling with blood, he collapsed within minutes and died. Without
Johnston’s inspired and focused leadership, the Confederate troops were
diverted from his primary strategic objective -- the capture of Pittsburg
Landing -- and instead intensified the offensive on the “Hornet’s Nest,” a
hastily formed defensive line established along a sunken road near a peach
orchard and the only Union position that had not yielded to the Rebel
onslaught. This misguided tactic, which required numerous frontal assaults
before achieving a breakthrough, produced heavy casualties on both sides and
allowed General Grant seven precious hours to establish a new defensive line
extending west from Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River then north up the
Hamburg-Savannah River Road toward Owl Creek. Late in the afternoon of the
first day, a final charge on this second line by two Confederate brigades was
repulsed, and as the bloody day drew to a close it became clear that the late
General Johnston’s grand strategy of driving the Union Army away from the Tennessee
River and capturing Pittsburg Landing had fallen short.
John Ravenscroft
brushed sand off the top of the manuscript, now piled messily next to the
folding chair, and dropped an oval rock on top to protect it from errant sea
breezes. He removed his reading glasses and scanned the churning waves of Avila
Beach. The afternoon light sparkled on the waves flowing over the smooth sands
and crashing against the black-barnacled piles of Harford Pier. Far beyond the
end of the pier, at least five miles or more, lofty cumulus clouds drifted on
the prevailing winds northwesterly toward Morro Bay. John rubbed his eyes,
fatigued by the ocean glare, and when he opened them Muireall padded through
the sand into his vision. She wore the fashion of the day. The black,
knee-length, puffed-sleeve wool dress hung down to conceal the ribbons
decorating the bottom of her black bloomers. Rivulets of seawater ran off the
hem of the dress and rolled across the long black stockings adorning her
athletic legs before splashing on the black laced-up bathing slippers
protecting her feet. A fancy cap, also black and trimmed with a twisty swirl of
white piping, offered the only feminine touch. John attempted to imagine the
sensual curve of Muireall’s waist, but the bathing suit prevented it.
Muireall pulled the fancy cap off and
reached for a towel to dry her dark, shoulder-length hair. “Make any progress?”
John rubbed his eyes again. “Yes I did. I
just began reading the section on Shiloh.”
“And?”
“I liked it, but….”
“But what?”
“You use a lot of parenthetical phrases.”
Muireall tossed the damp towel over the
canvas back of her folding chair and plopped onto the canvas seat. “I like
parenthetical phrases.”
“I noticed. And you use commas, dashes, and
even parentheses to punctuate them.”
“Do you see a problem?”
“Not really. On the other hand, I’m truly
impressed by the amount of information you are capable of packing into a single
sentence. But when you string two or three of those packed sentences
together….”
“Is this a bad thing?”
“I suppose not, but it does make your
writing a bit…turgid…at times.”
“Turgid? At times?”
“You know what I mean. Thick. At times.”
Muireall fluffed her hair to dry it in the
slanting sun. “Do you think I should rewrite the section on Shiloh?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you should consider
inserting a short, pithy sentence from time to time. It might reduce the
turgidity.”
Muireall stretched her arms and legs and
burrowed her toes into the warm sand. “Alright. Probably good feedback. I’ll
rewrite the section as you suggest.” Muireall began to rise from the chair.
John reached over and pressed her arm down.
“But not now and not tonight. How would you like to eat dinner here before we
drive home? We could dress and drop by the Marre Hotel for seafood and a glass
of wine. We could make a romantic evening of it.”
Muireall smiled. “You don’t think I should
address the excessive use of parenthetical phrases tonight? Since you’ve
pointed it out, I feel a tremendous urge to resolve the issue as soon as
possible.”
John released her arm with a tender caress.
“The parenthetical phrases can wait until tomorrow.” After enjoying one last view
of the sparkling sea, John asked, “By the way—what’s a minie ball?”
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