THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.
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or any part of his command, to pursue. Although the senior in rank at thetime, I had been so only a few weeks. Buell was, and had been for sometime past, a department commander, while I commanded only a district. Idid not meet Buell in person until too late to get troops ready and pursuewith effect; but, had I seen him at the moment of the last charge, I shouldhave at least requested him to follow.
The enemy had hardly started in retreat from his last position, when, look-ing back toward the river, I saw a division of troops coming up in beautifulorder, as if going on parade or review. The commander was at the headof the column, and the staff seemed to be disposed about as they wouldhave been had they been going on parade. When the head of the columncame near where I was standing, it was halted, and the commanding officer,General A. McD. McCook, rode up to where I was and appealed to me not tosend his division any farther, saying that they were worn out with marchingand fighting. This division had marched on the 6th from a point ten ortwelve miles east of Savannah , over bad roads. The men had also lost restduring the night while crossing the Tennessee , and had been engaged in thebattle of the 7tli. It was not, however, the rank and file or the junior officerswho asked to be excused, but the division commander. § I rode forward sev-eral miles the day after the battle, and found that the enemy had droppedmuch, if not all, of their provisions, some ammunition, and the extra wheelsof their caissons, lightening their loads to enable them to get off their guns.About five miles out we found their field-hospital abandoned. An immediatepursuit must have resulted in the capture of a considerable number of prison-ers and probably some guns.
Shiloh was the severest battle fought at the West during the war, and butfew in the East equaled it for hard, determined fighting. I saw an openfield, in our possession on the second day, over which the Confederates hadmade repeated charges the day before, so covered with dead that it wouldhave been possible to walk across the clearing, in any direction, stepping ondead bodies, without a foot touching the ground. On our side National andConfederate were mingled together in about equal proportions; but on theremainder of the field nearly all were Confederates. On one part, which hadevidently not been plowed for several years, probably because the land was
In an article on the battle of Shiloh, which Iwrote for “ The Century” magazine, I stated thatGeneral A. McD. McCook, who commanded a di-vision of Buell’s army, expressed some unwilling-ness to pursue the enemy on Monday, April 7th,because of the condition of his troops. GeneralBadeau, in his history, also makes the samestatement, on my authority. Out of justice toGeneral McCook and his command, I must saythat they left a point twenty-two miles east ofSavannah on the morning of the 6th. From theheavy rains of a few days previous and the pas-sage of trains and artillery, the roads were neces-sarily deep in mud, which made marching slow.The division had not only marched through thismud the day before, but it had been in the rainall night without rest. It was engaged in the
battle of the second day, and did as good serviceas its position allowed. In fact, an opportunity oc-curred for it to perform a conspicuous act of gal-lantry which elicited the highest commendationfrom division commanders in the Army of the Ten-nessee. General Sherman, both in his memoirsand report, makes mention of this fact. GeneralMcCook himself belongs to a family which fur-nished many volunteers to the army. I refer tothese circumstances with minuteness because I didGeneral McCook injustice in my article in “• TheCentury,” though not to the extent one would sup-pose from the public press. I am not willing to doany one an injustice, and if convinced that I havedone one, I am always willing to make the fullest