Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-02-22

the alarum. / had campaigned III Virginia
and knew the meaning of the long roll L
shall not forget the incredulous smile which
wreathed a field officers face when | sug-
gested "bush whackers' carried no drums
An impression prevailed that an attempt
was being made to decoy us into ambush,
and, after waiting for an attack we slowly
marched back to camp. Suspicious horse.
men hung upon the skirts of our retiring
column, and stragglers who came up late
that night told of narrow escapes from
death and capture. This was Thursday,
April 3. We had met tine adv Ince of Har-
dee's corps marching on the Bark road and
then at Mickey's.
The sententiouS words of the ma jor of the
Seventeen were carried that night to Gen
Albert Sidney Johnston adv ance guard OF
the Grand Army of the United States"
That meant that Sherman had discovered
the movement and was coming out to give
him battle or check his advance until Buell.
could come up The forward march was
stopped. Line of battle was formed and re-
serves brought up. A delay ensueI Per-
haps this halt at Monterey cost Johnston a
victory. Maj. McFerrlns grandiose re-
sponse probably saved Grants army, for the
battle, which was to have taken place on
Saturday, was not begun until Sunday, and
Buell., who was beyond reach on Saturday,
was crossing the Tennessee on Sunday night
On Friday, the 4th of April, the advance
Of JOhnston's army was feeling its way to
Sherman's unconscious camps. On the even
ing Of that day, in the midst OF a drenching
shower of rain, an attack was made on our
advance picket-post, an old cotton-gin, one
mile away from our police line. After a
brisk fight, Lieut.. Heatou and seven men,
belonging to the Seventieth Ohio, were
carried away. The alarm brought Sher-
mans division to arms The Fourth brigade,
supported by the cavalry, went to the front
At the cotton-gn we formed a line, while
Buckland's own regiment was divided and
sent with the cavalry along the two roads
branching in front of us. Sherman, the
stern, lean Tithonus, was there, nerv-
ously riding up and down the line.
The rain drizzled away until darkness
set in. Soon rapid musket-firing was
heard where Bucklaud had gone, and
anon the terrible growl of two pieces of
artillery. The guns were not ours; they
were with the enemy. Had the impertura-
bic commander of the Fifth division ever
heard of artillery moving with "bushwhack-
ers" on the front OF hostile army! Perhaps
so. In this skirmish two rosy young Georgia
cavalrymen were captured. They were car
ried to the rear, where they afforded much
entertainment TO the Federal soldiers, who
had never seen a real enemy. We stood in
line there in the rain and darkness, and
listened to a dozen volleys of musketry away
towards Corinth. The volleys were fired
with precision, and yet officers We're found
to declare that perhaps Prentiss had gone
round to the rear of the "bushwhackers'
and was giving them drubbing. Those
volleys came from the advance brigades of
u.
and dry ones substituted in anticipation of
attack.
Had the Federal general at Shiloh been
sufficiently warnedi His advance had been
fired on at Pea Ridge; his pickets had been
seized and cannon had been fired into his
face in front OF his own camps And yet not
a shovelfull of earth had been thrown up,
not a soldier was ordered to rest upon his
arms. Endymion. ever slumbering beneath
the caresses of the loving moon on Mt Lat
mos, could not have been more Indifferent to
danger than the general who held this army
in the hollow of his hand.
Saturday morning the Georgia cavalry
men, prisoners in the old Shiloh church, had
peeped through the chinks at their captors,
had said "You fellows act as though you
had never seen rebels; you'll see enough
before You arc twenty-four hours older,n
and had been marched away to the river.
1t was a morning of profound peace,
afternoon the whole army was drawn up for
review on the Purdy road The forests for
bade a marching review. While waiting for
Grant to ride down the line and hurry off to
Savannah, the officers with their glasses
could look across an old field and see 100
rebel horsemen calmly sitting in the skirt of
the woods watching our strange proceeding.
The cheek of those audaciouS and "recon-
noitering bushwackers" was something to
admire. 1t was, perhaps, way they had
in that army.
The Federal army slept quietly that night
after having been soothed by the eye of the
great commander few Struggling shots
were heard along the front, hut they dis
turbed nobody When the morning sun
arose it gilded q ma gnifcent rebel host NOV
ing to battle against an unsuspecting enemy.
The driving in of Bucklands pickets brought
the first Federal regiments into line. The
dropping and pattering fire of the skir-
misherS had scarce given way to witherin
volleys when a battery, trained the night
before on the camp-fires of the SEVENTEEN
regiment sent shot and shell shIieking
among the white tents The boom of those
guns was heard at Savannah by unwilling
ears The roar of the fierce cannonade was
heard at Crump's Landing, and Lew Wal
lace, the farceur Of the army, lost the op-
portunity to play the role Of Desaix at
Marengo.
On Sunday night, April 6, the mangled,
bleeding crushed army of Grant was lying
hemmed in on the bank Of the Tennessee
river At sunset that day the red star of
Buell's signal corps had waved from the op-
posite shore and the head of gallant old Nell
sons column had emerged from the low
lands, hot and weary, after marching all
day to the sullen, terrible roar of battle.
Buell. had come and Grant had been saved.
All night long Buelfs compact, steady bat
taliuns crossed the swollen river and tramped
through mud and rain to take position for
the morrow's struggle, In the dull and
leaden morning the band of the Eighteenth
regulars stood on the deck of steamboat
and played selections from I'll Trovatore."
By that token and in that spirit the battle
was renewed, and when the night came
Shiloh was won.
LEE INNER a,r,,5 PRESSIIRES