The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-15
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.
Being Extracts From the Diary of
 Young Alabama Soldier.

1 April, 1862. The battle of Shlior was fought on the sixth and seventh days of April with great slaughter ana bravery on both sides. Our regiment went into the battle a little over three hundred strong and mad one hundred and thirty officers and men killed on Sunday. the sixth of April; not being | engaged the next day but detailed py General Beauregard as rear guard | to pick up stragglers and send them to the front Our regiment was com manded in the battle of Shiloh by Col onel R. C. Farris. Senior Captain p. 1P HoEombe (acting lieutenant col oneD, and Second Senior Captain T. J. | Burnett (acting major)
 Our general intending to attack Grant at Pittsburg Landing early on Saturday morning, the fifth of April, moved out from Corinth early on Thursday morning, April 5, allowing us ample time to reach the Yankees by Friday night as they were only distant two short days march. But 1t seemed that fates was against us. for as soon as we had taken up our line of march ! it commenced raining hard, and soon made the roads almost impossible TOT our artillery and ammunition trains so that we were forced to move very slowly Friday night we were not close enough to attack next day ex- cept with cavalry. Colonel Clanton | with his 1st Alabama Cavalary had some lively skirmishing with the Yam kee outposts and advancel cavalry and drove them back on the man hody on Saturday. Still the enemy did not seem to have taken the alarm from these demonstrations. Saturday night we slept in striking distance of Grants | army As our whole front was GOV cred by Hindman's Arkansas Brigade deployed as skirmishers we did not
 put out any guards but slept Tn close l Nh formed into line of battle on snort notice.
 Sunday morning at daylight we has tilly breakfasted and formed line or
 battle in rear of General Gladden Brigade In a few minutes Hindman s Hong line of skirmishers swept forward towards the Tennessee (about one and a half or two miles distant). in beau tiful style. In about ten minutes they struck the Yankee skirmishers ana the
 woods began to ring with the InuSlc
 of their rifles. they soon swept the Yankee skirmishers back on their llne of battle. drawn up in front of their first camps Then Hardee's corps
 which was in front struck the Yankee lines with great fury and broke them in few minutes
 As soon as Hardee struck the 1an- kee line, they opened a heavy artillery
 and infantry fire; the shells and pui,
 let's passed over our heads and feli among us in considerable numbers put none of us were struck-our men stood
 the racket finely.
 Pretty soon Gladden. swept in and
 became hotly engaged assisting Hardee in driving the enemy beyond thelr camps About this time POLK corps
 became engaged on Hardee's left they
 occupying exactly the same position on his left that we did on his right. AL
 this point while we were supportii.s .s Gladden. in our front and moving 10 take position on his right, under
 slight smelling General Sidney <JonhsoIl
 passed along our front followed oy
 Stewards brigade taking position on
 our left Major Burnett not Knowing
 who it was asked him how the pattie
 was going; "Gloriously'' he said, ms
 whole face lighting up, we are drlV- ing them at every point. we VIII gam
 a glorious victory" He looked so SO
 grand and noble that as soon as It
 Was whispered along the lines who he
 was the men gave great cheers TOT
 him. he turned towards our line ana
 raised his hat; al that moment the
 new risen sun struck across ms iace and made it seem Godlike. Our great
 general, if he had only lived, now we
 would have idolized him!
 He xalloped towards the front ana that was the last saw of him, few hours afterwards, while ieaolhs | q charge to sustain his weakened cen ter which ne thought was III l he was mortally wounded and dleo soon after. We were soon heavily en- gagged and twelve or fifteen men struck | down by shells. among them Lleuten- ant Sadler of Lowndes But, the ene- my were soon driven from this place
 ana we were moved further to the riebt where we became heavily en- paged our regiment being placed Tn a very periolous position part or the time. exposed to fire from three ol- | rections at. the same time.
 At this point Sergeant Bop MoseIey
 (who was killed afterwards), captureo and wounded the Lieutenant Colonel oI the 5Oth Illinois Regiment, between our two regiments during a Hull in the fir inc He fired on us three times when
 we both pulled down on him simul- taneously. breaking his leg We nad A hot fight at this point for over an hour when we broke the Yankees ana | then double ouicked to the assistance of Rreckinridge's division in the cen Iter. which had been in reserve anu was just engaged and was being sore lly pressed Gladden's wasted troops | and Cages Mobile Battery were nooiy sustaining them when we rushed III front of them and swept forward drN- ling the Yankees before us. lhtee times we retired without aInmun ItiSi II in face of their hot fire (for they maoe | a gallant stand in the center), an9 went in again untn 10 our complneo efforts Prentiss's division surrenoefeo and were sent to the rear under guard We pressed on driving the Hankees into the river, in sight of their gun boats and our artillery playing haVoC at short range until dark when tne troops being in some contusloh'