520

SHILOH REVIEWED.

Michler, who, in fact, was not present, and complains that it was neverreturned to him. He says that I grumbled about the stragglers, and that hefeared I would not bring my army across the river. One would suppose thathis fears would have been allayed by the fact that, at that very moment, mytroops were arriving and covering his front as fast as legs and steamboatscould carry them.

In the execution of the retreat described in the reports of McClernand andSherman, from the west to the east side of Tillman’s Creek, there was a quitethorough disintegration of divisions and brigades, lacking nothing but thepressure of a vigorous pursuit to convert it into a complete rout. In itsseventh position, McClernand ’s division recovered some force and preserveda recognized organization; but not so with Sherman’s. Indeed, in that divi-sion the disorganization occurred, as has already been stated, at an earlierperiod. In Hildebrand’s brigade it was almost coincident with the enemy’sfirst assault. With McDowell’s it commenced with the unsuccessful attemptto form line of battle along the Purdy road, and was complete very soonafter 1 o’clock; and these two brigades never recovered their aggregationagain until after the battle. With Buckland’s brigade also it occurred atthe miscarriage at the Purdy road about 10 o’clock, but it was not so thor-ough as in the other brigades—at least it was afterward partially repairedduring the first day, as his report explains. He says, after the retreat fromhis camp about 10 o’clock:

“ We formed line on the Purdy road, but the fleeing mass from the left broke through ourlines, and many of our men caught the infection and fled with the crowd. Colonel Cockerillbecame separated from Colonel Sullivan and myself, and was afterward engaged with part ofhis command at McClernand ’s camp. Colonel Sullivan and myself kept together, and madeevery effort to rally our men, but with very poor success. They had become scattered in alldirections. We were borne considerably to the left, but finally succeeded in forming a line,and had a short engagement with the enemy, who made his appearance soon after our line wasformed. The enemy fell back, and we proceeded to the road where you [General Sherman]found us. At this point I was joined by Colonel Cockerill, and we there formed line of battleand slept on our arms Sunday night. Colonel Sullivan, being out of ammunition, marched tothe landing for a supply, and while there was ordered to support a battery at that point. ”

It is only after a close examination of the records that we can understandthe full significance of the following passage in Greneral Sherman’s report:

“ In this position we rested for the night. My command had become decidedly of a mixedcharacter. Buckland’s brigade was the only one with me that retained its organization.Colonel Hildebrand was personally there, but his brigade was not. Colonel McDowell hadbeen severely injured by a fall from his horse, and had gone to the river, and the three regi-ments of his brigade were not in line. The 13th Missouri , Colonel Crafts J. Wright, hadreported to me on the field, and fought well, retaining its regimental organization, and it formedpart of my line during Sunday night and all of Monday; other fragments of regiments andcompanies had also fallen into my division, and acted with it during the remainder of the battle.”

It thus appears that from about 1 o’clock until the time when Greneral Sher-man found Colonel Buckland with two regiments on the road from the bridgeto the landing, not a single regiment of his division excepting Cockerill’s, andnot one prominent individual representative of it excepting that officer and