THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

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I believed to be most unjust charges. On one occasion a correspondent putin my mouth the very charge I had so often refuted—of disloyalty. Thisbrought from (teneral Buell a very severe retort, which I saw in the NewYork “World” some time before I received the letter itself. I could verywell understand his grievance at seeing untrue and disgraceful chargesapparently sustained by an officer who, at the time, was at the head of thearmy. I replied to him, but not through the press. I kept no copy of myletter, nor did I ever see it in print, neither did I receive an answer.

General Albert Sidney Johnston , who commanded the Confederate forcesat the beginning of the battle, was disabled by a wound in the afternoon ofthe first day. His wound, as I understood afterward, was not necessarilyfatal, or even dangerous. But he was a man who would not abandon whathe deemed an important trust in the face of danger, and consequently con-tinued in the saddle, commanding, until so exhausted by the loss of bloodthat he had to be taken from his horse, and soon after died. The news wasnot long in reaching our side, and, I suppose, was quite an encouragementto the National soldiers. I had known Johnston slightly in the Mexican war,and later as an officer in the regular army. He was a man of high char-acter and ability. His contemporaries at West Point, and officers generallywho came to know him personally later, and who remained on our side,expected him to prove the most formidable man to meet that the Confederacywould produce. Nothing occurred in his brief command of an army to proveor disprove the high estimate that had been placed upon his military ability. |

General Beauregard was next in rank to Johnston , and succeeded to thecommand, which he retained to the close of the battle and during the subse-quent retreat on Corinth, as well as in the siege of that place. His tacticshave been severely criticised by Confederate writers, but I do not believe hisfallen chief could have done any better under the circumstances. Some ofthese critics claim that Shiloh was won when Johnston fell, and that if he hadnot fallen the army under me would have been annihilated or captured. Ifsdefeated the Confederates at Shiloh. There is little doubt that we would havebeen disgracefully beaten if all the shells and bullets fired by us had passedharmlessly over the enemy, and if all of theirs had taken effect. Command-ing generals are liable to be killed during engagements; and the fact thatwhen he was shot Johnston was leading a brigade to induce it to make acharge which had been repeatedly ordered, is evidence that there was neitherthe universal demoralization on our side nor the unbounded confidence ontheirs which has been claimed. There was, in fact, no hour during the daywhen I doubted the eventual defeat of the enemy, although I was disappointedthat reenforcements so near at hand did not arrive at an earlier hour.

The Confederates fought with courage at Shiloh, but the particular skillclaimed I could not, and still cannot, see; though there is nothing to criticise

4 In his ‘‘ Personal Memoirs ” General Grant orders and dispatches of Johnston I am compelledsays: “I once wrote that ‘nothing occurred in to materially modify my views of that officer’shis "brief command of an army to prove or dis- qualifications as a soldier. My judgment nowprove the high estimate that had been placed is that he was vacillating and undecided in hisupon his military ability’; but after studying the actions.”