Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1885-07-03
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

Written for the Graphic by an old sol dier and
iblished at the request ormauy comrades.
Who can forget the awful carnage
On shiioh's bloody field,
Who can forget our gallant boys,
Who shed their blood, the victory to seal
We often talk OF that fierce battle
Offriends who there a musket bore,
We remember still onr gallant comrades,
Who fell that day to rise no more.
Thus to-day, as /. upon the past am muslng.
Old thoughts come crowding back once more.
Again1 see that fierce death grapple,
Again hear the cannon's roar
1t was u peaceful sabbath morning
At dawn Que April day:
The Union Army unrer Grant
Encamped at Shiloh lay.
No thought of danger had we then,
No word ofwLrning yet had we
That soon there ID be a bloody battle
BY the rolling Tennessee.
We had not dreamed sucb an awful day
Could have so fair birth;
That a morn SO bright would end In battle
thunder,
raging hell on earth.
Aud little were we thinking then
AS there In camp we lay.
That so many of our bravest boys must die
For eur country's cause that day,
All night before, our foes were marching
In solid ranks mighty throng.
And forming lines to give us battle,
Fully forty thousand strong.
And there concealed by bush and hollow
Along our front the southern :army lay,
Prepared to crush the Union lines
AT the dawning OF the day.
Listen boys what means that dring
Along our front as 1t grows light,
Hark, the rebels are advancing
TO begin the deadly fight.
Listen boys the ball has opened,
Our good old chaplain cried
Don't you hear them? they are coming;
We must face the battle's tide.
On they came, the gray brigades
These frey sons of southern soil,
They forced The lines, Ia blue, TO waver,
The Union army 10 rccoil
Now commenced deadly struggle
such we never saw before,
Fiercer grew that awful conflict
Mid the cannon's deafening roar.
Our ranks grew thin from murderous voleys
They pierced our lines on every hand
Surrounding then the gallan; praaiice
And capturing his command.
Our lines fell back still madIy fighting
Like baflied lions driven TO bay,
We still taught on for help was coming,
Buell's troops viii come to-day.
The guntoats Joined the horrid din
As there in walt, for help we stood
Ana ponderons shells from heavy guns
Went shrieking though the wood.
Thus all day long the battle ragged
This bloody stife and fierce turmoil,
hundreds on the field was 81 ain,
And blood had dyed the southern soil.
When Buell. came TO our relief
In I! e gathering gloom aud rain,
Beauregord wlthdrew his shattered lines
And johnson the southern chief was slain.
Deep darkness fell like u funeral pail,
On that field with gore SO red,
And soaked with rain we lay that night
The living with he dead.
Then with the mornings early light,
Our battered ranks rell in to line once more.
TO drive the confederates from the ground,
We had lost the day bef,re.
Ofall that day need not TELL
How Beauregard was forced To yield,
How baified and beaten his lines fell back
And we had won TIE ltlu
All honor to Suell and his brave mon.
To General Grant and Prentice TO
To all the boys who wore the blue
Aud helped us puL the victory through.