The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-22
THE THIRD DIVISION AT SHILOH.
Why 1t Was Late in Reaching the Field
Vivid Pictures of Battle Scenes.

General Wallace said that he had selected as
his subject The Second Days Fight at Pitts
burg Landing" and continued: ut may be pre-
sumed that all Of you, citizens well soldiers,
will agree that 1t is perfectly proper for me to
heighten interest in my subject by resort to such
accessory incidents as may be at hand for the
purpose; particularly. if. while ministering to
your pleasure some service may at the same
time be done to the cause OF truth. The battle
itself-that of Sundays such an accessory;
but, in spite of its opportunities for fine writing
will put it by because | was not there. Having
learned BY personal experience how sweet justice
is when one receives it, and also how hard it is
to endure injustice, / am resolved to confine
myself to those matters in the connection
which lie in my own knowledge, and are ad-
mitted facts. The accessory next to the battle
is General Grant And here I would like
my veteran friends to look back their
field memories, and see how fixed and vivid
some Of them are. Once, while the fighting
was going on, came upon rebel sitting with
his back to stump. He was laughing The
sight irritated me- / checked nv horse and
was about to speak to him, when ! saw he WIS
dead. The awful jolity on his face will stay with
me for life. Another time, from my place be-
hind the line, caught soldier running away,
and stopped him. He looked at me once The
idiocy of that look is another of my fadeless da-
geurreotypes yet he was only panic struck. On
another occasion had to- pass a long stretch of
unsheltered road under a heavy fire of shells.
My horse could not be made to go out of walk;
yet recall nothing of the affair graphically
the little spurts OF yellow dust that shot up
around me, telling where the iron fragments fell.
Again, riding in front of a regiment advancing
arms right shoulder shift, heard a round shot
go past and strike behind me- The peculiar sound
OF the blow made me turn, and | was in time to
see the arm of man cut clean from his body.
and naked and stiff its thumb and fingers all
widespread, flying like stick, end over end,
in the air. Of long nights, sleepess, though
not all awake, that apparitlon returns to me as
clear to view and horrible as in the moment of
its occurrence. So, doubtless, we all have recol-
lections of a pleasauter kind-of man in heroic
act-of the colonel as he went down behind the
rear rank, salloping and brandishing his sword,
and yelling to quicken on the file firing. Now,
as these come to you, after incongruities of time
and place for which there is no accounting, one
man in particular comes to me. He looks always
exactly the same He rides TALL bright bay
horse, with generals trappings. His figure.
judged through ful-caped blue overcoat, is
rather low. but he keeps his saddle easily and
we'll. His hands are gauntled and his sword in
hat is drawn down close upon his
brow, yet l sec beneath it a rudy
face. warmer by yellow-t;nged. close-chopped
beard. Two clear gray eyes look into my eyes.
The thunder OF the guns is in the air, blended
with an under monotone which the uninitiated
would say was the noise of workmen riveting all
at once the boilers of q Thousand ocean steam
ers: but. having heard it often, you and know
1T for what it is-the infantry plying each other
at close range. The noise does not disturb my
horseman. He is slightly grim-a man appreci
alive and with a vast interest at stake could
hardly be otherwise-grim but calm, delibera
tive, imperturbable. A few words said in the
tone farmers discuss the crops, pleasant Good
day." and he rides away. 1t is the vision in my
heart photographed Of General Grant. as he
came to me in the morning, then in the evening
of the second day Of Shiloh. So perfect in
every detail is the figure, so distinct its
expression OF face, not to mention -the sound of
the voice, that DO not need portrait Of him
or rather it is all the portrait do need-aud
cherish it as that of the greatest soldier of the
greatest war of the age. who, while he did me
the greatest possible injustice, had afterward
the magnanity to reverse his opinion, and do me
the greatest possible right. by making the re-
versal eDduringly public" General Wallace
went fully into the details of the misunderstood
ing that existed between him and General Grant,
and of the circumstances which led General
Grant to write letter. in a great measure
lievinc him of the stigma that others mistakes
had cast upon him. He did not considerable fact
that General Grant reiterated in the Century
Magazine, in 1885, his preconceived opinion as
damaging, for General Grant was then dying,
and the story was dictated when he was no
longer able to write. aud when sickness had
made sad inroads upon his memory. Having
given an interesting narrative Of all
that led up 70 the fight, General Wallace thus
described his first night on the field. With
water ofsSnake creek There was no light in the
sky, and upon the earth not camp fire.
The blackness of darkness was about US. An
orderly who had carried dispatches for me was
the only man in the command who was in the
least acquainted with the locality. With him,
the blind leading the blind, we CROPPED along the
road toward Pittsburg Landing. l expected to
be met at the bridges by a guide Then the
heavens opened and deluged us with rain.
Finally, when to my best guess, the whole di-
TicJn bod IN fhn htfrh
called halt, and, as alignment was impossible,
directed the chiefs of brigades to draw their
men to the rght-hand side of the road and
let them rest along it as best they could,
first picketing on the same side. [ rode
then to find General Grant and report. We
stumbled frequently upon groups of stragglers
and questioned them. Where was General
Grant, They did not know. Sherman? They
did not know. Or the divisions any of them2
They did not know. Or their own regiments}
They did not know. Or the enemy? "Oh. just
over there" But no two of them pointed in the
same direction. From the moment of entrance
into the road between the landings, the advanced
guard had been sometimes amused, sometimes
annoyed, by stampeded men, some hatless. some
shoeless some naked having thrown off their
clothes to swim the creek, and ALL of course,
without arms. Where they were, or where 60
ing they did rot know or seem to care.
To stop them the command Halt"
had been as effective as to powders
reply: "We've been cut to peeesw Then. with
out knowing it, they translated the cry of the
French flying from the horrors of Waterloo:
'Save yourselves; save yourselves" and plunged
on, and now that we had at last gained the field,
here were stragglers sinsiy and stragglers in
groups-but where was the armyl Fearing to
get separated from my command, returned to
it, resolved, as Mcpherson and Rollins must
have reported our arrival, to await for orders.
On the sheltered side of a tree crouched to es-
cape the rain. OF the thousands who had fol-
lowed me so faithfully anxious to get where they
might strike one good blow for country. no one
had the best bed; yet they were ali apparently
asleep The dripping of the water and the sough
of the wind were not enough to drown the rnoa
that could be heard off in the darkness One
voice in particular reached us in seemingly
measured intervals, crying Help! Help" The
long-drawn qusvering tones were 30 full
Of agony and despair that they
took hold of my imagination, and
led it out to where the sufferer lay his lace
-