THE CAMPAIGN OF SHILOH.
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position, well backed by artillery, and held with great resolution, theyrepulsed a series of uncombined assaults made against them. Here GeneralBragg was directing operations in person; and it was here that, after Hindmanhad suffered severely in several ineffectual efforts, Gibson’s brigade of Bragg’sown corps was employed in four unavailing assaults, when finding himselfunable to carry the position, General Bragg, as he reports, desisted from anyfurther attempt, leaving that part of the field in charge of a staff-officer withauthority to act in his name, and going farther to the right to find thatGeneral Johnston was dead. However, having previously learned, from hisaide-de-camp, Colonel Urquhart, that Adjutant-General Jordan was near by, herequested that officer, through Colonel Urquhart, to collect and employ someof our troops to turn the left of the position that obstructed his advancetoward the river, as just described. Upon that service Colonel Jordan, in afew moments, employed Statham’s brigade, which was fortunately found nearby, resting at ordered arms, General Breckinridge, to whom the order wasgiven, being with it at the time. This happened, be it noted, at 2:30 p. M.,or about the moment that General Johnston was bleeding to death in thecovert of a deep ravine a very short distance from Statham’s brigade, in theimmediate rear of which it was that his wound had been inflicted. |
General Breckinridge quickly became engaged with the enemy in his front,covered by a thick underbrush that edged an open field over which the Con-federate advance was made. The conflict was sharp for a few moments, butthe Federals had to give way. j) About this time, under my orders, Cheathamcame up with his Second Brigade on the left of Breckinridge. Moreover, afew moments later, or as early as 3 p. m., Withers, of Bragg’s corps, havingfound that his adversary (Stuart’s brigade) which had so long occupied him onthe extreme right had disappeared toward Pittsburg Landing, and havingmoved across the intervening ravines and ridges with his division to where thesound of artillery and musketry showed the main battle was now raging,—wasbrought opportunely into cooperation with Cheatham’s and Breckinridge’soperations directly upon Hurlbut’s left flank — a movement which Hurlbutresisted stoutly until, justly apprehensive of being cut off, he fell back, after4 p. m., upon Pittsburg Landing.\ This left Prentiss’s left flank exposed;Wallace, whose unflinching handling of his division had done so much to keepthe Federal army from being driven to the river-side by midday, now also, to
I General Johnston was not wounded whileleading a charge, as has "been so frequentlyasserted, hut while several hundred yards in therear of Statham’s brigade after it had made asuccessful advance, and during the absence ofGovernor Harris of his staff, whom he had dis-patched to Colonel Statham, some two hundredyards distant, with orders to charge and take aFederal battery on his left. (See letter of IshamG. Harris , April 13th, 1876, p. 537, Vol. I. “TheMilitary Operations of General Beauregard.”) —G. T. B.
j> Colonel W. P. Johnston has sought to make itappear that immediately upon the death of hisfather [see page 565], and in consequence of
that event, there was in effect a lull in theoperations on the Confederate right of which Gen-eral Johnston had hitherto been the soul—a lullof an hour; whereas it is manifest there cannothave been a cessation of the operations ofGeneral Breckinridge’s troops for more thanfifteen minutes at most,— the only troops whomGeneral Johnston had been directing in any waysince 11 A. m. — G. T. B.
\ This saved him from sharing the fate of Pren-tiss, for the strength of the Confederate force thathad now been brought to bear upon the remains ofWallace’s, Hurlbut’s, and Prentiss’s divisions wassufficient to assure their environment and cap-ture.— G. T. B.