SHILOH REVIEWED.

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board, and was met by him at tbe door of the ladies’ cabin, in which therewere besides himself two or three members of his staff. Other officers mayhave entered afterward. He appeared to realize that he was beset by apressing danger, and manifested by manner more than in words that he wasrelieved by my arrival as indicating the near approach of succor; but therewas nothing in his deportment that the circumstances would not have justi-fied without disparagement to the character of a courageous soldier. Cer-tainly there was none of that masterly confidence which has since beenassumed with reference to the occasion. After the first salutation, and as Iwalked to a seat, he remarked that he had just come in from the front, andheld up his sword to call my attention to an indentation which he said thescabbard had received from a shot. I did not particularly notice it, andafter inquiring about the progress of the battle and requesting him to sendsteamers to bring up Crittenden’s division, which was coming into Savannahas I left, I proposed that we should go ashore. As we reached the gangwayI noticed that the horses of himself and his staff were being taken ashore.He mounted and rode away, while I walked up the hill; so that I saw himno more until the attack occurred at the landing late in the evening. Istate these particulars of our meeting with so much detail because a totallyincorrect version of the place, manner, and substance of the interview hasbeen used to give a false impression of the state of the battle, and a falsecoloring to personal traits which are assumed to have had the issue in control. J)

| About two weeks after the battle of Shilohthere appeared in some newspaper that wasshown to me a report of a conversation assumedto have taken place between General Grant andmyself soon after the battle, in which I was repre-sented as rallying him upon the narrowness of hisescape, and saying that he had not transportsenough to carry off ten thousand men; to whichhe was reported as replying, in substance, thatwhen it came to retreating transportation wouldnot have been required for more than ten thousand.

The story had been colored for popular effect, butwas traceable to a conversation in a vein of pleas-antry that occurred at my camp, after the battle,among a party of officers in which I had taken butlittle part.

Some time afterward it took on a modificationwhich suited the alleged conversation, to my meet-ing with General Grant on my arrival at PittsburgLanding during the battle. This changed materi-ally the character of the report, but I continued totreat it with the indifference which I thought itdeserved, though the story has been freely circu-lated. I never knew until within a few monthspast, through the publication of the “War Rec-ords,” that in its modified form it had the indorse-ment of an official authorship.

Prom that publication it appears that a yearafter the battle General Grant called upon threeof his staff-officers to make reports concerning themovements of General Lew Wallace ’s division onthe day of the battle, in answer to a complaint ofthe latter officer that injustice had been done himin General Grant’s reports. Two of the officers,namely, General McPherson and Captain Rowley,in their replies confined themselves to that sub-

ject. The third, Colonel Rawlins, on the otherhand, made it the occasion of a specific defense, orexplanation, or commendation, or whatever it maybe called, of General Grant’s relation to the battle.Among other things that have since been more orless disputed, he said:

“General Nelson’s division of the Army of the Ohioreadied Savannah on the afternoon of the 5th of April,hut General Buell himself did not arrive. . . . You [Gen-eral Grant] then rode back to the house near the riverthat had been designated for headquarters, to learnwhat word if any had been received from General Nel-son, whose division you expected soon to arrive at thelanding on the opposite side of the river; and you theremet Maj.-Gen. D. C. Buell, who had arrived at Savannahand taken a steamer and come up to see you, and learnhow T the battle was progressing in advance of his force.Among his first inquiries was: ‘ What preparationshave you made for retreating ? ’ To which you replied,‘ I have not yet despaired of whipping them, general’;and went on to state to him your momentary expecta-tion of the arrival of General Wallace , to whom ordershad been timely and repeatedly sent, and that GeneralNelson’s division might soon be expected by the wagon-road from Savannah,” etc.

This statement, ridiculous and absurd in itsprincipal feature, is incorrect in every particular.

It is well known that I arrived at Savannahon the 5th of April; General Grant did not, asmight be inferred, find me at the landing atPittsburg — I found him there ; we did not meet at‘ ‘ the house near the river,” but on his headquarterssteamer.

I mention these points only to show the ten-dency of the statement to error, and I aver that nosuch conversation as is described ever occurred,and that the contingency of a retreat was notbrought forward by General Grant or by me.

My attention has within a few days been called