Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-04-30
GEN. sIDNEYi JoHNsroN.s AIN
Utterly Ast0uished at General ".
e. Shernlan's ..kseviSeI Ac-
count of Shiloh.
,incinnatiGazetie

Cincinnati Gazette.
i 4 short conversation was hat
yesterday with General M. J
| Hawes, of CoVington, Kentucky
who was at the battle of Shiloh, anC
who furnishes the following graph
| ic description of the surprise
About three days before the bat
tie of Shiloh I received from Rich
mond IA brigader generals coInis
sion, but as battle, either at Shi-
loh or Corinth, was considered i'm.
minent, was not given immediate
charge of any troops. Desiring t.
make myself useful, / acted as vol
untary aid-de-camp to General
Sidney JOHNSON, and was employed
in carrying orders and replies
between Johnson and Breckinridge.
Gen. Johson'S army Was made up
in the main of raw recruits, who
had never stood in line under fire,
and he realized that his only hope
was in demolishing Grant and
Sherman before Buell. could come
up. He knew they intended to at
tack him at Corinth as soon as their
preparations were complete, and
that his raw troops would not
stand up against their united forces.
He made his calculations as to
the time Buell. would be likely to
arrive, and during the third, fourth
and fifth was diligently preparing
his forces for the Sunday morning
assault. But for unavoidable de-
lays in marshaling inexperienced
men, and getting them supplied
with rations, ammunition, ETC., the
attack would have been made
on the morning of the fifth. Had
the army of Tennessee been under
wise and cautions generalship, all
this would have been known to the
Federals, but they seemed totally
Indifferent to our movements, and
there was not spy in our camp.
General Johnston knew the assault
must not be delayed longer than
the morning of the sixth, to make
it effective, because Buell. was draw
ing near and Nelson was almost at
hand. So on the morning of the
fifth we moved out from COrinth.
With masses of infantry, cavalry
and heavy artillery, we marched in
broad daylight fifteen miles from
Corinth, directly toward the Fed
eral camps, in which it would seem
nothing was known of our move.
That night the men lay down upon
their guns, within less than one
mile of the advance camp of the en-
emy, in line of battle. / slept on
the ground beside my unsaddled
horse, waiting for the morning. 1t
was discovered by our men that
the advance camp referred to had
no pickets out, only sort of police
guard about one hundred yards
from the tents. The unguarded
condition of this large advance
camp, the fact that they were un-
conscious of the approach or prox-
unity of our entire army, with the
commanding general eight miles
away, looks very much as though
they had not been expecting us.
Early the next morning our troops
assaulted the advance camp, en-
countering no obstacle but the pO-
lice guard already mentioned which
they captured almost entire. The
camp also was soon in their hands,
and Federals were taken prisoners
from their beds and from the mess
tables, dressed and undresSed asleep
and awake. To be sure the main
camps were not so thoroughly sur
priSed, having a few minutes to
prepare for us after the first assault,
but takan as a whole, / regard it as
the most complete and effective
that was ever accomplish
ed in civilized warefare. Every
thing in the conduct of the Federal
commanding Generals and the con-
dition of their camps would have
that they were not eXpec-
ting to be disturbed for thousand
years. | read General Sherman'S
''revised account" which he gave
to the public at Cincinnati, and l
was utterly astounded at his asser-
tion that there was no surprise. 1t |
recalled to my mind conversation
had with General Buell. several
years after the war. | asked him |
how it was that Grant and Sher-
man allowed themselves to be so
at Shiloh.
"Oh," said he, "they were not |
SdlO, 0SuC1dI3 L dJh dhNiCl-
stand you. They certainly were
and did not know of the
Of our massed infantry,
cavalry and artillery almost to
their lines the day before or we
would not have been received as
we were"
"Well," said the General, "they |
say they were not surprised, and [
will try to believe it. But then, l
must suppose that they knew of
your movements and of your con-
assault, but did not know
how to guard against it,"
| must reassert that they were
and disastrously surpris-
ed, and had General Johnston that
day had half of Lees army instead
Of the one he had, with the lead he
got by the surprise that morning
he would have demolished the
whole Federal forces before mid
day, and long before Buell. or the
1ashing Nelson could have come
up.
TennesSee's Debt settlement