Western Kansas world., 1907-08-10
AN OLD WAR LETTER.
Recalls the Sad Story of Wounding Of
Gen. Wallace at Shiloh.

dGh. wallace AT SniioH.
Of all relics of the civil wnr tho
ones which most touch me are the
faded yellow letters from soldiers at
the front or in hospitals, and those
other letters from home to the sol
diers. showing the marks and creases
caused by being carried long in pocket
and knapsack, until by some chance
they drifted back home again across
the lines of faction and war, writes
Ada c. Sweet, in Chicago Journal
One of the most pathetic and yet
nobly strong letters / remember to
have read, is one from Mrs Wallace,
widow of the gallant Gen. William H.
Wallace, who met death at Shiloh,
after helping Prentiss to hold the CEN
ter all of that terrible first day, when
the whole union army was crumpled
up and crowded almost into the Ten
nessee river, only escaping by holding
Pittsburg Landing until morning
came, with Buell's advance on the
field, and the dispirited troops of the
day before ready for new trial be-
fore the grim gods of war.
Mrs. Wallace, worried and anxious
at home, had started to visit her hus-
band in the camp at Shiloh, and she
arrived at Pittsburg Landing on the
steamer Minnehaha before daylight
Sunday morning, April 6, 1862. The
letter I am describing was written by
Mrs. Wallace some ten days after
the battle to a near relation.
She describes her arrival-the visit
was to be a complete surprise to her
husband-and she remained on board
of the river steamer, after sending
word to him that she was there, and
as she waited him, as the sun rose
over the spring landscape, she heard
firing, but thought nothing of it there,
near the great war camp, where thou
sands of men were being drilled and
trained in the uses of war.
Before very long she saw wounded
soldiers being brought on board of her
steamer, and then came more and
more, pale, bleeding and panic-strick-
en-, and they all told the same story
of the early morning attack and the
driving in of the outer lines, and occu-
patton by the enemy, of the outer
camps.
Her husband, she was told, was on
the field, in the very center of the rag
ing battle. Vainly she tried to get an
other message to him. He was in the
Hornets Nest where no one could
penetrate. Before noon the boat was
crowded with wounded, and Mrs. Wal
lace tried to comfort and assuage
their sufferings.
In the afternoon the Minnehaha was
used to ferry over Nelson's regiments,
the advance of Buelrs reenforcements.
At last, when the boat landed on the
Pittsburg side, a message was brought
to the anxious woman. Wallaces di-
vision, they told her, had been falling
back, Wallace leading it, just having
been fanked by the enemy. Just clear
of the Hornets Nest" and as his
command came into the road to the
Landing the general had been shot
and had fallen from his horse and left
for dead. One of his soldiers, an or
| derly, zone who loved him. had car
ried the body more than a quarter of
mile, and then to avoid death and
capture, had to lay him down out of
the way of tramping feet, and leave
him
All night Mrs. Wallace nursed the
wounded on the steamer, and at ten
| o'clock Monday morning word came
to her that the general was still
breathing, and that he was to be
brought to her. Her dead was alive,
and she rejoiced. She was allowed to
! take her husband to Savannah, a few
miles away, on the river, and to nurse
him for four days, before he breathed
| his last.
| Gratefully she tells in her letter Of
the comfort it was to both that they
| could have these last days together
| The general could not speak, but he
showed to the last minute that he
knew his wife, and by the faint pres
sure of his hand that she held told how
much it was to him to have her by
his side.
Such is the story told by the faded
letter; to read it brings home to the
heart and Imagination what the men
and women of the country suffered
and endured, more than a generation
ago, that the union might live Rev
erently refer to this old letter from
one of the women of Illinois. The
survivors of Shiloh will hear of it with
mournful interest, 1 am sure