The National tribune., 1901-03-14
BUELL. AT SHILOH.
A 4sth Ohio Comrade Claims That the Rein.
forcements Saved Grants Army.

EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: NV at
tention has just been called to a commu-
nleatlon In your valuable paper of Dec
~ from a. l.. Spencer, Co. Il, 18th Ill,
Mansfield, Mo-, in which he tells YOUR nu-
merous readers that Buell. was not needed
at Shiloh" and gives as his reason that
he had just read in Grants Memoirs, page
3l4, the following: so confident was
before firing had ceased on the 9Th that
the next day would bring victory to our
arms If We could only take the initiative
that l visited the division commanders in
person, before any reinforcements had
reached the field. directed them to throw
out heavy lines of skirmishers in the morn
ing as soon as they could see, and push
them forward until they found the en-
envy; follow with their entire divisions
in supporting distance. and engage the
enemy as soon as found"
Comrade Spencer also says that Gen.
Rowley, of Galena, ILL.,. once told him that
the bulldog fighting was taken out of the
rebel army on Sunday. and that Grant
had issued orders to his division command
ers to take the offensive in the morning.
and with the arrival of Wallace's Division
of 5000 men that they would have cleaned
the rebels out on Monday. without the
aid Of man from BuelPs army. Now
want to say that l, too, was at Shiloh. as
an humble member of Co. X. 49th Ohio
JohnsOn's Brigade of McCooks Division
and wish to state that neither Gen. Grant
nor Gen. Rowley q never heard of him
before) or any other man can instruct me
by either printed page or word of mouth
as to what l know or believe about that
bloody affair. / am too old man to be-
lieve when anyone tries to beittie the
great service that Don Carlos Buell. ren-
dered to the Union cause at Fittsburg
Landing.
Going back to the phrase ''to take the
initiative on Monday morning." in Grants
book, let US ask ourselves Just what the
word initiative" means2 To answer our
own question we may briefly state that it
is from an old Latin root, and means "to
begin-to take the first STEP" Now. in
order to settle the question as to whether
Grant was able to take the initiative. or
first step, on the second day. let us briefly
look over what happened on the first day
The field return Of the Army of the
Tennessee Exclusive of Lew Wallaes's
Division) ON the day before the battle
April 8, 1S62-shows that 26.642 men
were present and able for duty. and that
the Confederate strength was 3T.011-a
difference of 1O,379 men. quote from the
Rebellion Records. Vol. x, Part 1. The
loss of the Union army on the first day.
killed, wounded and prisoners. was a little
over 10000. Gen. Nelson in his official re-
port says that he found from 1000 to
10000 men covering and skulkirg under
the river bank when he arrived at the
Landing about sundown. frantic with
fright and utterly demoralized. who met
my gallant division with cries. We are
whipped 'cut to pieces They were in
sensible to shame or, sarcasm-for l tried
both on them-and. indignant at such pol
troonery, asked permission to open fire
upon the lnaves."
If we put the loss in the battle on Sun
day at 10000 and the skulkers at 1000. we
have total of 1900. and by subtracting
that number from 26.642. we only have
a little over 1900 men to cope with a vic
torious and defiant rebel army of at least
10000 men. Going back to Grants Me-
moirs again, We read where he says that