Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1881-04-13
"WE'RE WHIPPED y,
The Trilling Sight Witnessed by Bull
Advance at Shiloh


E. Hannaford in the Phila. Weekly Times
Nelson was never debonair on duty. The
scene at the landing (Which has never been
adequately described and perhaps never
will be- was we'll fitted to excite the scorn
and indignation Of such combative nature
as his; yet it may well be doubted whether,
if he were alive to-day, he would not wish
to expunge from his official report the
harsh statement that he finally asked per-
mission to open fire upon the knaves."
Get out OF the way, you id cowardsw
he exclaimed, furiously, as the frantic
throng pressed toward boat whence one
of his fayo1ite regiments was debarking
'Get out Of the way! If you won't fight
yourselves, let these men off that will! Men,
follow mel"
II shall never forget says DR.. Bradford
again, s'the forming line on the bluff at
Pittsburg Landing I doubt whether on
any other battlefield of the war any set Of
men ever formed under just such circum-
stances. Most of our batteries gone, a
| thousand wagons gone; our entire force
seemingly driven into twelve or fifteen acres
of ground; the enemy pressing on with bat
teries and musketry in front and a cross fire
Of cannon from above, and ten thousand
panic stricken men out of the fight crying:
We're whipped! The battle is lost! It's
no use to formp They're driving us into
the river, etc. In this terrible extremity
the command fell quickly and orderly into
line and, at the word, moved calamity for
ward. could not resist the temptation Of
riding my iron-gr close up to the lines
and crying out, Bully for the Sixth Ohior
"As we landed, wrote Colonel Crosse, with
! pardonable enthusiasm to his wife, imme-
! diately after the battle, "there were at least
fifteen thousand Of Grants panic stricken
troops who had thrown away their arms and
were pressing to get on board the boats land
as my regiment marched up the hill we
/ would hear the towards say to my men,
You will get it" You will come back!'
| You will see! and many other such express
slons; yet our men went bravely up and
formed in line Of battle. Generals Buell. and
Nelson both with me. While forming the
heavy fire of the enemy was passing thick
and fast around us. Poor White was struck
by canister shot and both his legs were
torn off, and about the same time a staff
officer ten feet in front of the line, on horse
between General Nelson and myself, had
his head shot off by cannon ball, and fell,
/ a CHASTITY sight before my regiment at see
ing which few OF our men nearest the
! scene fell back O few steps, but as soon as I
! commanded them to dress up the line, they
| did so promptly, and obeyed the command
/ to forward march, in line Of battle. We
/ moved off about one hundred yards to sup
! port one Of our retreating batteries, and
1 there we opened up severe fire on the APP
i preaching enemy, which, I think was the
! first evidence the rebels had that the adj
| vance OF Buells army was arriving. The
! fire OF our regiment checked the enemy for
the night. and, as everybody here says,
turned the tide of battle and saved Grants
army.
! Every survivor Of the Tenth Brigade will
recall how the shocking death of General
/ Grants aid, as mentioned by Colonel Crosse,
! was talked about for weeks afterwards, and
the more because the same, or a nearly
simultaneous discharge, shot away the sad
die from under Lieutenant Graves, a vol
/ unter aid of General Nelson and then went
plunging over the bluff, producing the
widest CONSERVATION among the fugitive
thousand there herded It cannot but
strike one as singular, therefore, to know
how completely this CHASTITY incident was
| lgnoredby the contemporaneous accounts of
! Shiloh. Byron's famous satire on military
1 glory defined it as being killed in battle
and having ones name misspelled in the
! official gazette. But what shall we say of
this case, where brave man met the most
tragic of deaths, and his name-nay, even
his fate-was not so much as limited?
" I