The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1912-05-10

BY A PARTICIPANT.

attache of the Registry Department In
the Post Office at Houston, Texas, viii
be of interest especially to the veterans
of the Civil War. MIR. Rowe served In
Company II, 18th Kentucky 1nfantry,and
the following recently appeared in the
Houston Chronicle.
Fifty years ago the western bank OF
the Tennessee river at shiloh, a little
church in the woods, was the stage up
on which was enacted one of the tragedies
of the civil war. Two opposing armies,
one in blue, one in grey, practically equal
in numbers, met there in a terrific shock
of battle at an early hour of the beauti-
full Sunday morning of April 6, 1862. The
battle ragged all day Sunday with
grim determination and with no
dearth of heroism or valor on either
side until late in the afternoon, when
the shadow of victory seemed to
hover around the banner of the grey
clad host. BY or G o'clock in the
afternoon the Union army iliu psSH
pushed back to the vicinity of the
Tennessee river and their camps of
the morning, with their tents and
equipage, were occupied by the close
Iy pressing enthusiastic Confederates.
At this stage of the battle the fight
ing lulled, then practically ceased al
together, and the first days hattie of
Shiloh was over. The last spirited
episode of the day was the dash of
Colonel Lindsey of the First Mis-
sssippi cavalry with so or 40 men to
capture a Federal battery that seemed
to be without protection; but they
were unexpectedly met by some Fed
eral infantry and a hurried retreat
was made to get out of their fire.
That Sunday night was long and
weary one to the thousands of both
armies who had fought all day and
expected to renew the battle in the
morning. A night of intense suffer-
ing to other thousands of wounded
and dying on the field where they had
fallen during the storm of battle, to
be drenched with a downpour of rain
in the black darkness, with no hand
to soothe, no word of cheer; but may
We not hope that for still other thou
sands who lay still in death on that
bloody and ran-soaked ground. it was
not night at all for them, but an
awakening to glorious morning of
dewey freshness and sweet rest In that
bourne whence no traveller returns?"
The two hostile armises passed the
two federal gunboats, Tyler and Lex
ington, at intervals of some regu-
night of the 9Th in comparative
quietness, sleeping on their arms. The
by throwing shells over the tree tops
on the chance of their finding a
bursting place among the enemy's
camps The bursting shells would
boom back their answer like AN echo
OF the guns that fired them, but the
writer never heard whether there
were any causalties from those shells
or not. Perhaps they had a moral
effect more disheartening to the
enemy than they would have been
willing to acknowledge.
Opinions differ as to what would
have been the final termination of
that battle If the Confederates had
pushed on and assaulted the line that
was formed by the Federals about 5
o'clock back toward the river. Some
say that such a move by the Con-
federates would have resulted in quick
annihliation or capture of Grants en-
tire army, and that Buell., who was
then have been compelled to retreat
to save his army from similar dis
aster, and that the Confederates
would have regained the ground they
had so recently lost in Tennessee and
Kentucky. The opinion of Others was.
and is, that all assaults upon that line
of the Fedenals possible for Beaure-
CARDS exhausted troops to make
would have resulted in such disaster
10 themselves that they could have
made no fight worthy Of the name the
next day.
The struggle If such an attempt hal
been made would almost certainly
have eclipsed the one at the hornets
nest" of an earlier hour in the after
noon, where General Albert Sidney
Johnston fell.
The Federals had such strong
line of battle, consisting of close
Gordon of field artillery and siege
guns. with ample support of infantry,
that It seemed capable of repelling
any attack that could have been made
even II 1t had been possible 10 use
fresh troops for the attempt. Beau
regards troops. greatly exhausted and