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THE PURSUIT
On the morning of April 8, pursuant to Grant's instructions, the
Federals conducted a reconnaissance in force. The objective was to
ascertain if the Confederates had retreated or if they threatened to
resume their attacks. General Sherman, with two infantry brigades of his
division, along with two battalions of cavalry, advanced slowly south
from his camps on the Corinth road. Near the forks of the Bark and
Corinth roads, Sherman met Brig. Gen. Thomas Wood's division of Buell's
army. Up to this point, having passed through the abandoned Southern
camps and several Confederate field hospitals, neither Union column had
encountered resistance. From the junction, both columns continued on,
with Wood moving south along the Corinth road, while Sherman headed west
on the Bark road.
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FINAL ACTION ON THE FIELD BEFORE SHERMAN'S CAMPS AND SHILOH MEETING
HOUSE. (PRINT COLLECTION, MIRIAM AND IRA D. WALLACH, THE NEW YORK PUBLIC
LIBRARY)
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UNION SOLDIERS WAIT TO BE EXAMINED BY AN ARMY SURGEON ON THE
BATTLEFIELD. THE TENT FIELD HOSPITALS ESTABLISHED AT SHILOH WERE AMONG
THE FIRST TO BE USED ON A BATTLEFIELD. (BL)
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Critics have always charged that Grant missed a major opportunity to
further damage, if not destroy, the retreating Confederate army with a
vigorous pursuit after the battle. Many years after the war Grant
claimed that he "wanted to pursue, but had not the heart to order the
men who had fought desperately for two days, lying in the mud and rain
whenever not fighting, and I did not feel disposed to positively order
Buell, or any part of his command to pursue." An incensed Buell later
replied: "If General Grant meant to imply that I was responsible that
the pursuit was not made, I might perhaps answer that it is always to be
expected that the chief [senior] officer in command will determine the
course to be pursued."
(click on image for a PDF version)
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BEAUREGARD COUNTERATTACKS AND RETREATS, APRIL 7-NOON-DARK
To hold the Corinth road, Beauregard leads a succession of
counterattacks from Shiloh Church. From noon to 2 P.M., Sherman,
Rousseau, Kirk, and Gibson are hammered by these assaults at Water Oaks
Pond. Reinforced by Tuttle, Crittenden seizes the Eastern Corinth and
Hamburg-Purdy road Junction and drives the Confederates into Prentiss's
old camps. Nelson resumes his advance, and by late afternoon seizes the
heights overlooking Locust Grove Branch. As Wood's division reinforces
Crittenden, Grant moves Veatch forward to flank Beauregard's final
counterattack. Beauregard orders retreat, placing Breckinridge in charge
of the rear guard. To discourage further Union advance, Confederate
batteries are massed at Shiloh Church and on the ridge south of Shiloh
Branch. A 4:00 sortie under Looney protects the final withdrawal across
Shiloh Branch. The Federals recover Sherman's and Prentiss's old camps,
but do not pursue. Wallace advances beyond Shiloh Branch, but
unsupported, he halts at dark and retires to Sherman's camps. The battle
ends.
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In reality, Grant found himself severely limited by Halleck's
standing orders not to engage the Confederates except in defense. He
informed Buell on the night of April 7 that these orders still applied.
Grant added that he desired they "feel on in the morning with all the
troops on the outer lines." But he cautioned Buell that, based on
Halleck's instructions to avoid battle, they could not advance beyond
Monterey or to some point that could be reached and returned from in a
day. Grant's critics, among them General Buell himself, say that the
lack of a vigorous pursuit was the last great blunder of the battle.
Although Buell, by rank, was junior to Grant, both generals answered
directly and separately to Halleck. Grant might have felt constrained to
give Buell a direct order to carry out a pursuit. Buell's men, along
with Lew Wallace's division of Grant's force, were the most fresh.
Again, critics say that at the very least, Grant should have sent
forward as many of these fresh forces as could possibly be reorganized.
It appears all of the Federals were simply exhausted and content that
the bloodletting was over.
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THE MAJORITY OF THE 8,012 CONFEDERATES REPORTED WOUNDED AT SHILOH WERE
EVACUATED BY WAGONS AND AMBULANCES TO THE CORINTH RAILHEAD. (BL)
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Even if Grant had not been constrained to obey Halleck's cautious
standing orders and instead had the freedom to attempt a vigorous
pursuit, several stark tactical realities challenged the success of such
an operation. Both Union armies lacked large organized cavalry commands
of brigade or division strength, which would have been useful for
pursuing the retreating Confederates. They might have pursued with
infantry, but a shortage of horses (hundreds were killed and many more
wounded or broken down during the battle) to move supplies and pull
artillery did not permit a major Union movement south from the
battlefield. Difficult, naturally defensible terrain covered the pursuit
corridors to the Lick Creek bottoms, providing the Confederates with
ample and excellent opportunities to deploy and ambush pursuing columns.
Once the Confederates crossed the flooded Lick Creek bottoms, they could
easily post and defend the crossing and punish any Federal attempt to
cross the swampy valley.
Grant's critics believe, however, that had a serious attempt at
pursuit been made between April 7 and 9, hundreds of straggling
Confederates could have been captured. During the early morning of April
8 Bragg notified Beauregard: "Our condition is horrible. Troops utterly
disorganized and demoralized. Roads almost impassable. No provisions and
no forage, consequently everything is feeble . . . . Our artillery is
being left all along the roads by its officers; indeed, I find but few
officers with their men." Some 200 cavalrymen were dismounted and their
horses used to bring in the abandoned guns. In contradiction to these
observations, however, Bragg's report of the battle, filed three weeks
later, made no mention of the "horrible" condition of the army during
the retreat. Instead, Bragg labeled the retreat south as "orderly,"
stating that "under the circumstances, it was as creditable to the
troops as any part of the brilliant advance they had made." In addition,
Breckinridge, who supervised the rear guard at Michie's (Mickey's),
eight miles southwest of Pittsburg, reported that afternoon that
although the road to Corinth was "much obstructed by artillery and
[etc.]," the large number of Confederate "stragglers are nearly all gone
by here (Michie's)." If General Breckinridge's observations were
correct, the vast majority of the Southern forces were already south of
the protection provided by the broad muddy valley of Lick Creek.
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THIS CURRIER AND IVES LITHOGRAPH SHOWS (L-R) GENERALS CRITTENDEN,
WALLACE, BUELL, SHERMAN, AND GRANT AT THE BATTLE OF PITTSBURG,
TENNESSEE. (LC)
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Meanwhile, having directed Wood to march south on the Corinth road,
Sherman cautiously tramped west on the Bark road with his infantry and
two battalions of the 4th Illinois Cavalry under Col. T. Lyle Dickey. At
a point six miles southwest of Pittsburg Landing, Sherman noticed a
clear field through which the road passed and immediately beyond a space
of some two hundred yards of fallen timber. Beyond this, posted on the
opposite ridge, was an extensive camp, where could be seen a Confederate
field hospital, protected by a force of Southern cavalry.
The cavalry was a mixed group of 300 troopers, consisting of 220 of
Col. John Wharton's Texas Rangers commanded by Maj. Thomas Harrison, a
company of Wirt Adams's Mississippi cavalry regiment, and about forty of
Colonel Forrest's Tennesseans. Forrest, as the senior officer on the
field, commanded.
Sherman cautiously advanced a skirmish line consisting of the 77th
Ohio Infantry. Noticing that the Federal skirmishers were having
difficulty clearing the fallen timber, Forrest ordered a charge. The
scene quickly became a wild melee as the Southern troopers bore down on
the Buckeyes, firing shotguns and revolvers and brandishing sabers.
Dickey's Illinois horse soldiers likewise got caught up in the
confusion, firing their single-shot carbines much too quickly. Now
unloaded, the Union troopers were forced to flee to the rear. Sherman
himself was nearly captured in the confusion.
The panicked Federals sought shelter behind Jesse Hildebrand's
brigade, which formed in line of battle across a cotton field. Forrest
was so far in advance of the Southern troopers, many of whom were now
beginning to retreat at the sight of the strong Union battle line, that
he came to within a few yards of the Federals before realizing he was
all alone. Hundreds of Yankees yelled out: "Kill him! Kill him and his
horse!" A Federal shoved his musket into Forrest's side and pulled the
trigger. The bullet struck the colonel above the hip, penetrating to the
spine. Although seriously wounded, Forrest proceeded to pull an unlucky
Federal soldier up by his collar onto the back of his horse and use him
as a shield to protect his escape. The wounded Confederate colonel
retired to Corinth subsequently went home to Memphis to recuperate.
Twenty-one days later, still carrying the bullet lodged against his
spine, he returned to Corinth and resumed his duties.
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DEAD HORSES ARE BURNED ON THE BATTLEFIELD NEAR THE PEACH ORCHARD. (LC)
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Sherman lost at least ninety men (most of them captured in the
charge) while Harrison reported two killed and seven wounded from his
command but could not account for other Southern casualties except that
Forrest had been wounded at "Fallen Timbers," as it became known. With
the Confederates having retired, Sherman advanced and captured the field
hospital with about 250 wounded (among them 50 wounded Union soldiers
who had fallen into Confederate hands). Dickey's Illinois troopers
pushed on for another mile, where they encountered Breckinridge's
infantry rear guard, supported by artillery, just east of Michie's
farmhouse. All signs pointed to a Rebel retreat, so Dickey probed no
farther. Pursuant to Grant's instructions and having found the area
south of Pittsburg Landing clean of all but minor enemy formations for
seven miles out to the Lick Creek watershed, Sherman and Wood returned
that evening to the grisly Shiloh battlefield. The battle was over.
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