From the first fearful onslaught upon Buckland’s brigade, which, gathering up its shattered regiments, and firing as they ran, to form in the heavy woods, leaving winrows of slain on their track, to the last outburst of shot and shell from the gunboats, the contest of that day had been a fearful one. Most of the troops which received the first shock of battle were raw recruits, just from the camp of instruction. Hundred and hundreds of them had never seen a gun fired save in sport in their lives. With officers equally inexperienced, admitting brilliant exceptions, it is not wonderful that the ranks were broken and driven back when the terrific roar of cannon burst in their midst, and bombshells scattered fire and death among the tents, in which they were quietly sleeping but an hour before. Springing to arms, half prepared only to rush through the blinding smoke to meet the serried columns of the rebels’ impetuous advance—truly it is not strange that they fell into confusion, fighting blindly and at random. But it was a grand sight when Sherman dashed along the lines, shouting encouragement to the men, exposing his own life a hundred times, and rallying his forces with a wonderful power of voice and action. The herculean exertions of this brave man no doubt saved the division from utter destruction.

From the first tranquil opening of that beautiful day to its lurid and bloody close more desperate bravery has seldom been exhibited. When Americans meet Americans, all that is heroic and daring in the national character springs to action, and deeds are done on both sides that thrill the nation as it stands breathlessly listening, North and South, to know how her sons have fought.

NIGHT BETWEEN THE TWO BATTLES.

In dead silence the troops took their new position, and lay down on their arms in line of battle. All night long the remainder of Buell’s men were marching up from Savannah to a point opposite Pittsburg Landing, whence they were brought over in transports. An hour after dark Wallace came in with his division. There had been delay in getting the right road, which made him late on the field. But once there he fell to work with energy. He ascertained the position of certain rebel batteries which lay in front of him on the right, and threatened to bar his advance in the morning, and selected positions for a couple of his batteries from which they could silence the enemy. In placing his guns and arranging his brigades for support, he was occupied till one o’clock in the morning. His wearied men had lain down to snatch a few hours of sleep, with the shadows of death all around them.

At nine o’clock all was hushed near the landing. Men still panting from the hot contest of the day, threw themselves on the earth to sleep or die as they chanced to be unhurt or wounded unto death. The bright stars looked down upon the ranks of sleeping, dying and dead men, with sweet Sabbath-like calm, and never did the stars of heaven brood over a spectacle more appalling. The sound of marching troops from the far distance alone broke the solemn stillness, save when the moans of the wounded, and the agonizing cries for water thrilled the night with sounds of anguish. Now a flash shed a flood of sheet-lightning over the river, turning its waters to lurid fire, and the roar of heavy naval guns reverberated on the bluffs, breaking up the sublime silence of the night. Again and again the guns boomed great volumes of sound. By the flashes, the gunboats could be seen receding back into the fiery blue of the waters with each graceful recoil produced by the discharge. A thin veil of smoke settled around them, floating drowsily between their black hulls and the beautiful stars. Far away in the distant woods came the muffled explosion of shells thus let loose on the tranquil air.

Thus the night wore on. The soldiers, far too weary for the boom of cannon to awake them, slept quietly almost as the dead were sleeping. The wounded answered back the dismal sound with more dismal groans. At midnight a thunder storm broke over the battle field, and the artillery of heaven swept its fires through the sky, while the guns from the river boomed a sullen answer. Torrents of rain fell, drenching the sleepers, but falling cool as balm on the parched lips of the wounded, assuaging their burning thirst and moistening their wounds.

The vigilant officers knew that half a mile off lay a victorious army, commanded by splendid Generals, rendered ardent by a half-won conquest which might be a victory on the morrow. For them there was little rest. When the day broke it found these men watching. When the brain is active men do not sleep, and the General who has divisions to command and protect must earn success by vigilance.

THE BATTLE ON MONDAY.

The line of battle agreed upon for the Union forces on Monday was this:—Right wing, Major-General Lew. Wallace; left wing, Brigadier-General Nelson. Between these, beginning at the left, Brigadier-Generals T. Crittenden, A. McD. McCook, Hurlbut, McClernand and W. T. Sherman. In the divisions of the three latter were to be included also the remains of Prentiss’ and W. H. L. Wallace’s commands—shattered and left without commanders, through the capture of one, and the mortal wound of the other.

Buell’s three divisions were not full when the battle opened on Monday morning, but the lacking regiments were gradually brought into the rear. The different divisions were composed of the following forces:

Brigadier-General Nelson’s Division.—First Brigade—Col. Ammon, 24th Ohio, commanding; 36th Indiana, Col. Gross; 6th Ohio, Lieut.-Col. Anderson; 24th Ohio, Lieut.-Col. Fred. C. Jones. Second Brigade—Saunders D. Bruce, 20th Kentucky, commanding; 1st Kentucky, Col. Enyard; 2d Kentucky, Col. Sedgwick; 20th Kentucky, Lieut.-Col. ——, commanding. Third Brigade—Col. Hazen, 41st Ohio, commanding; 41st Ohio, 6th Kentucky and 9th Indiana.

Brigadier-General T. Crittenden’s Division.—First Brigade—Gen. Boyle; 19th Ohio, Col. Beatty; 59th Ohio, Col. Pfyffe; 13th Kentucky, Col. Hobson; 9th Kentucky, Col. Grider. Second Brigade—Col. Wm. S. Smith, 13th Ohio, commanding; 13th Ohio, Lieut.-Col. Hawkins; 26th Kentucky, Lieut.-Col. Maxwell; 11th Kentucky, Col. P. P. Hawkins; with Mendenhall’s regular and Bartlett’s Ohio batteries.

Brigadier-General McCook’s Division.—First Brigade—Brig.-Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau; 1st Ohio, Col. Ed. A. Parrott; 6th Indiana, Col. Crittenden; 3d Kentucky (Louisville Legion); battalions 15th, 16th and 19th regulars. Second Brigade—Brig.-Gen. Johnston; 32d Indiana, Col. Willich; 39th Indiana, Col. Harrison; 49th Ohio, Col. Gibson. Third Brigade—Colonel Kirk, 34th Illinois, commanding; 34th Illinois, Lieut.-Col. Badsworth; 29th Indiana, Lieut.-Col. Drum; 30th Indiana, Col. Bass; 77th Pennsylvania, Col. Stambaugh.

Major-General Lew. Wallace’s Division—Right of Army.—First Brigade—Col. Morgan L. Smith, commanding; 8th Missouri, Col. Morgan L. Smith, Lieut.-Col. James Peckham, commanding; 11th Indiana, Col. George F. McGinnis; 24th Indiana, Col. Alvin P. Hovey; Thurber’s Missouri battery. Second Brigade—Col. Thayer (1st Nebraska) commanding; 1st Nebraska, Lieut.-Col. McCord, commanding; 23d Indiana, Col. Sanderson; 58th Ohio, Col. Bausenwein; 68th Ohio, Col. Steadman; Thompson’s Indiana battery. Third Brigade—Col. Chas. Whittlesey (20th Ohio) commanding; 20th Ohio, Lieut.-Col. —— commanding; 56th Ohio, Col. Peter Kinney; 76th Ohio, Col. Chas. R. Woods; 78th Ohio, Col. Leggett.

At daylight it became evident that the gunboat bombardment through the night had not been without a most important effect. It had changed the position of the rebel army. The sun had gone down with the enemy’s lines encircling the Union forces closely on the centre and left, pushing them to the river, and leaving them little over half a mile of all the broad space they had held in the morning. The gunboats had cut the coils and loosened the anaconda-like constriction. Their shells had made the old position on the extreme Union left, which the rebels had been occupying, utterly untenable. Instead of stealing upon their foe in the night, which was doubtless their intention, they were compelled to fall back from point to point out of range of the shells which came dropping in; go where they would within range, the troublesome visitors would find them out, and they fell back beyond the inner Union camps, and thus lost more than half the ground they had gained the afternoon before.

Less easily accounted for was a movement of theirs on the right. Here they had held a steep bluff, covered with underbrush, as their advanced line. Through the night they abandoned this, the best possible position for opposing Lew. Wallace, and had fallen back across some open fields to the scrub oak woods beyond.

To those who had looked despairingly at the prospects on Sunday evening, it seemed unaccountable that the rebels did not open the contest by daybreak. Their retreat before the bombshells of the gunboats, however, explained the delay. The Union divisions were put in motion almost simultaneously. By seven o’clock Lew. Wallace opened the day by shelling the rebel battery, of which mention has been made, from the positions he had selected the night before. A brisk artillery duel was followed by a rapid movement of infantry across a shallow ravine, as if to storm; and the rebels, enfiladed and menaced in front, limbered up and made the opening of their Monday’s retreating.

NELSON’S ADVANCE.

Nelson, who was assigned the left wing, moved his division about the same time Wallace opened on the rebel battery, forming in line of battle, Ammon’s brigade on the extreme left, Bruce’s in the centre, and Hazen’s to the right. Skirmishers were thrown out, and for nearly a mile the division thus swept the country, pushing a few outlying rebels before it, till it came upon them in force. Then a general engagement broke out along the line, and again the rattle of musketry and thunder of artillery echoed over the late silent fields. There was no straggling this morning. These men were well drilled, and strict measures were taken to prevent miscellaneous thronging back out of harm’s way. They stood up to their work and did their duty manfully.

It soon became evident that, whether from change of commanders or some other cause, the rebels were pursuing a new policy in massing their forces. On Sunday the heaviest fighting had been done on the left. In the morning they seemed to make a less determined resistance here, while toward the centre and right the ground was more obstinately contested, and the struggle fiercely prolonged.

Until half-past ten o’clock Nelson advanced slowly but steadily, sweeping his long lines over the ground of defeat on Sunday morning, moving over scores of dead rebels, and resistlessly pressing back the jaded and wearied enemy. The rebels had received but few reinforcements during the night. Their men were exhausted with the desperate contest of the day before, and manifestly dispirited by the fact that they were fighting Grant and Buell combined.

Gradually, as Nelson pushed forward his lines under heavy musketry, the enemy fell back, till about half-past ten, when, under cover of the heavy timber and a furious cannonading, they made a general rally. The Union forces, flushed with their easy success, were scarcely prepared for the sudden onset, when the rebel masses were hurled against them with tremendous force. The men halted, wavered, and were driven back. At this critical juncture Captain Terry’s regular battery came dashing up. Scarcely taking time to unlimber, he was loading and sighting his pieces before the caissons had turned, and in an instant was tossing in shell from twenty-four-pound howitzers in to the compact and advancing rebel ranks.

Here was the turning point of the battle on the left. The rebels were checked, not halted. On they came. Horse after horse from the batteries was picked off. Every private at one of the howitzers was shot down, and the gun was worked by Captain Terry himself and a corporal. A regiment dashed up from the Union line, and saved the disabled piece. Then for two hours artillery and musketry raged at close range. At last the enemy began to waver. The Federals pressed on, pouring in deadly volleys. Just then Buell, who assumed the general direction of his troops in the field, came up. At a glance he saw the position of things, and gave a prompt order. “Forward at double-quick by brigades.” The men leaped forward with the eagerness of unleashed hounds. For a quarter of a mile the rebels fell back. Faster and faster they ran; less and less resistance was made to the advance. At last the front camps on the left were reached, and by half-past two that point was cleared. The rebels had been steadily swept back over the ground they had won, with heavy loss, and fell into confusion. The Unionists had retaken all their own guns lost here the day before, and one or two from the rebels were left to attest how bravely that great victory in Tennessee was won.

ADVANCE OF CRITTENDEN’S DIVISION.

Next to Nelson came Crittenden. He, too, swept forward over his ground to the front some distance before finding the foe. Between eight and nine o’clock, however, while keeping Smith’s brigade on his left even with Nelson’s flank, and joining Boyle’s brigade to McCook on the right, in the grand advance, he came upon the enemy with a battery in position, and, well supported, Smith dashed his brigade forward. There was sharp, close work with musketry, and the rebels fled. He took three pieces—a twelve-pound howitzer and two brass six-pounders. But they cost the gallant Thirteenth Ohio dear. Major Ben. Piatt Runkle fell, mortally wounded.

For half an hour, perhaps, the storm raged around these captured guns. Then came the recoiling rebel wave that had hurled Nelson back. Crittenden, too, caught its full force. The rebels swept up to the batteries—around them, and down after the retreating Union column. But the two brigades, like those of Nelson’s to their left, took a fresh position, faced the foe, and held their ground. Mendenhall’s and Bartlett’s batteries now began shelling the infantry that alone opposed them. Before abandoning the guns so briefly held, they had spiked them with mud, and this novel expedient was perfectly successful. From that time till after one o’clock, while the fight raged back and forth over the same ground, the rebels did not succeed in firing a shot from their mud-spiked artillery.

At last the Union brigades began to gain the advantage. Crittenden drove the enemy steadily forward. Captain Mendenhall, with First-Lieutenant Parsons, a Western Reserve West Pointer, with Bartlett, poured in their shell. A rush for the contested battery, and it was taken again. The rebels retreated towards the left. Smith and Boyle holding the infantry well in hand, Mendenhall again got their range and poured in shell on the new position. The fortune of the day was against them, as against their comrades in Nelson’s front, and they were soon in full retreat.

Just then Brigadier-General Thomas J. Woods’ advance brigade from his approaching division came up. It was too late for the fight, but it relieved Crittenden’s weary fellows, and pushed on after the rebels until they were found to have left the most advanced Union camps.

M’COOK’S ADVANCE.

Thus the left was saved. Meanwhile McCook, with his magnificent regiments, was doing equally well toward the centre. His division was handled in a way to save great effusion of blood, while equally important results were attained. The reserves were kept as much as possible from under fire, while the troops in front were engaged. Thus the lists of killed and wounded will show that while as heavy fighting was done here as any where on the right or centre, the casualties were remarkably few.

An Illinois battery, serving in the division, was in imminent danger. The Sixth Indiana was ordered to its relief. A rapid rush, close musketry firing—no need of bayonets here—the battery was safe. The enemy were to the front and right. Advancing and firing the Sixth pushed on. The rebel colors dropped. Another volley; yet once more the fated colors fell. Was there fatality in this? The rebels seemed to think so, for they wheeled and disappeared.

Rousseau’s brigade was drawn off in splendid style. The rebel General saw the brigade filing back, and pushed his forces onward again. Kirk’s brigade advanced to meet him, coming out of the woods into an open field. It was met by a tremendous fire, which threw a battalion of regulars in its front into some confusion. They retired to reform, and meanwhile down dropped the brigade on the ground. As the front was cleared the men sprang up and charged across the open field, straight to the woods, under cover, driving the enemy back with their impetuous advance. He rallied promptly. Fierce musketry firing swept the woods. They advanced thirty rods, perhaps, when the Twenty-ninth Indiana got into a marsh and fell partially to the rear. Heavier came the leaden hail. The Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth both fell back fifteen or twenty rods; they rallied and advanced again. They were repulsed, started impetuously forward, and this time came in on the vulnerable points. Colonel Waggoner’s Fifteenth Indiana came up to the support and the enemy disappeared. Fresh troops took their places, and for them the fight ended.

Beginning at the left the waves of success swept forward from point to point over the lost fields of Sunday. Pæans of victory, and the wild cheers of successful soldiers sounded the requiem of the fallen rebels, who had atoned for their treason by the brave man’s death. Nelson, Crittenden, McCook, Hurlbut, McClernand, led their divisions bravely through the fray. The contest lasted longer on the right, and was even more fiercely contested.

LEW. WALLACE’S MOVEMENTS.

When Major-General Lew. Wallace opened the battle at seven o’clock by shelling with enfilading fires a rebel battery, a few shots demonstrated to the rebels that their position was untenable. The instant Sherman came in to protect his left, Wallace advanced his infantry. The rebel battery at once limbered up and got out of the way. The advance had withdrawn the division from Sherman, making a left half wheel, to get back into the neighborhood of the Federal line; they advanced some two hundred yards, which brought them to a little elevation, with a broad open stretch to the front. As the division halted on the crest of the swell, through the edge of the timber, skirting the fields, the head of a rebel column appeared, marching past in splendid style on the double-quick. Banner after banner flashed out through the foliage; the “Stars and Bars” forming a long line, stretching parallel with Wallace’s line of battle. Regiment after regiment swept forward, the line lengthened, and doubled and trebled; the head of the column was out of sight and still they came. Twenty regiments were counted passing through the woods. Their design was plain. The rebels had abandoned the idea of forcing their way through the Union left, and the manifest attempt was to turn the right.

Thompson’s and Thurber’s batteries were now ordered up, and the whole column was shelled as it passed. The rebels threw their artillery into position rapidly, and a brisk cannonading began. After a time, while the fight still rested with the artillery, the rebels opened a new and destructive battery to the right, which the Union men soon ascertained was “Watson’s Louisiana battery,” from the marks on the ammunition boxes the enemy were forced from time to time to leave behind.

Batteries, with a brigade of supporting infantry, were now moved forward over open fields, under heavy fire, to contend against this new assailant. The batteries opened, the sharpshooters were thrown out to the front to pick off the rebel artillerists, and the brigade was ordered down on its face to protect it from the flying shell and grape. For an hour and a half the contest lasted, while the body of the division was still delayed, waiting for Sherman.

SHERMAN’S DIVISION.

Sherman had received orders from Grant to advance and recapture his camps. His division was composed of odds and ends, as it came out of the conflict on Sunday evening.

His command was of a mixed character. Buckland’s brigade was the only one that retained its organization. Colonel Hildebrand was personally there, but his brigade was not. Colonel McDowell had been severely injured by a fall of his horse, had gone to the river, and the regiments of his brigade were not in line. The Thirteenth Missouri, Colonel Crafts J. Wright, had reported itself on the field, and fought well, retaining its regimental organization, and it formed a part of Sherman’s line during Sunday night and all Monday. Other fragments of regiments and companies had also fallen into his division, and acted with it during the remainder of the battle.

This was not a very promising host with which to “advance and recapture his camps.” Sherman, full of ardor, moved forward and reoccupied the ground on the extreme right of General McClernand’s camp, where he attracted the fire of a battery located near Colonel McDowell’s headquarters. Here he remained, patiently awaiting the sound of General Buell’s advance upon the main Corinth road. It was this independent action of Sherman which caused Wallace to halt—he evidently not understanding that General’s design.

By ten o’clock Sherman’s right, under Colonel Marsh, came up. He started to move across the field, but the storm of musketry and grape was too much for him, and he fell back in good order. Again he started on the double-quick and gained the woods. The Louisiana battery was turned; Marsh’s position left it subject to fire in flank and in front, and it then fled. The other rebel batteries at once followed, and Wallace’s division, in an instant, now that a master move had swept the board, pushed forward. Before them were broad fallow fields, then a woody little ravine, succeeded by cornfields and woods.

The left brigade was sent forward. It crossed the fallow fields, under fire, gained the ravine, and was rushing across the cornfields, when the same Louisiana steel rifled guns opened on them. Dashing forward they reached a little ground swell, behind which they dropped like dead men, while skirmishers were sent forward to silence the troublesome battery. The skirmishers crept forward till they gained a little knoll, not more than seventy-five yards from the battery. Of course the guns opened on them. They replied to some purpose. In a few minutes the battery was driven off, the artillerists killed, the horses shot down, and badly crippled every way. But the affair cost the Union cause a brave man—Lieutenant-Colonel Garber, who could not control his enthusiasm at the conduct of the skirmishers, and in his excitement incautiously exposed himself. All this time rebel regiments were pouring on to attack the audacious brigade that was supporting the skirmishers, but fresh regiments from Wallace’s division came up in time to defeat their purpose.

The battery was silenced. “Forward” was the division order. Rushing across the cornfields under a heavy fire, they now met the rebels face to face in the woods. The contest was quick and decisive. Close, sharp, continuous musketry drove the rebels back.

Here unfortunately Sherman’s right gave way. Wallace’s flank was exposed. He instantly formed Colonel Wood’s Seventy-sixth Ohio in a new line of battle, in right angles with the real one, with orders to protect the flank. The Eleventh Indiana was likewise contesting a sharp engagement with the enemy, who made a desperate attempt to flank it, and for a time the contest waxed furious. But Sherman soon filled the place of his broken regiments. Wallace’s division came forward, and again the enemy gave way.

By two o’clock the division was in the woods again, and for three-quarters of a mile it advanced under a murderous storm of shot. Then another contest, and another with the batteries, always met with skirmishers and sharpshooting—then by four o’clock, two hours later than on the right, a general rebel retreat—a sharp pursuit—from which the triumphant Union soldiers were recalled to encamp on the old ground of Sherman’s division, in the very tents from which those regiments were driven that hapless Sunday morning.

With great thanksgiving and shouts of triumph the Union army took possession of the camps. They had repulsed the enemy in one of the most hardly contested battles of the war, under many disadvantages, and with a heroism that fills a glorious page in the history of nations. The enemy was near, yet retreating—his columns broken and altogether defeated. His cavalry still hovered within half a mile of the camps, but it was allowed to depart, and the battle of Pittsburg Landing, written by more than a hundred thousand bayonets, was at an end.

AFTER THE BATTLE.

The sight of that battle field was horrible. The first approaches, occupying the further range of the enemy’s guns, bore fearful witness of the wild devastation made by the ball and shell which had over-shot the mark. Large trees were entirely splintered off within ten feet of the ground; heavy branches lay in every direction, and pieces of exploded missiles were scattered over the forest sward. The carcasses of horses and the wrecks of wagons strewed all the woods and marked every step of the way.

Half a mile further on, and the most terrible results of the struggle were brought to view. Lifeless bodies lay thickly in the woods; the dead and dying lay close together in the fields, some in heaps on their backs, some with clenched hands half raised in air—others with their guns held in a fixed grip, as if in the act of loading when the fatal shaft struck them dead. Others still had crawled away from further danger, and, sheltering themselves behind old logs, had sunk into an eternal sleep. Here were the bodies of men who had fallen the day before, mingled with those from whose wounds the blood was yet warmly trickling.

Around the open space known as “The battalion drill ground,” the scene was still more appalling. This spot had been desperately contested on both sides; but the dead on the rebel side were four to one compared to the Union losses. It was horrible to see in what wild attitudes they had fallen. Here a poor creature appeared in a sitting posture, propped up by logs, on which the green moss had been drenched with blood, and with his hands rigidly locked over his knees, sat still as marble, with his ashen face drooping on his breast. One poor wretch had crept away to the woods, and ensconcing himself between two logs, spread his blanket above him as a shield from the rain of the previous night. He was a wounded rebel, and asked pitifully of those who searched among the dead if nothing could be done for him.

In the track of the larger guns terrible havoc had been made, and scenes of revolting mutilation presented themselves. The field of battle extended over a distance of five miles in length, and three-quarters of a mile in width. This space was fought over twice in regular battle array, and many times in the charges and retreats of the different divisions of the two armies. Every tree and sapling in that whole space was pierced through and through with cannon-shot and musketballs, and it is reported that there was scarcely a rod of ground on the five miles which did not have a dead or wounded man upon it.

On Sunday, especially, several portions of the ground were fought over three and four times, and the two lines swayed backward and forward like advancing and retreating waves. In repeated instances, rebel and Union soldiers, protected by the trees, were within thirty feet of each other. Many of the camps, as they were lost and retaken, received showers of balls. At the close of the fight, General McClernand’s tent contained twenty-seven bullet-holes, and his Adjutant’s thirty-two. In the Adjutant’s tent, when the Union forces recaptured it, the body of a rebel was found in a sitting position. He had evidently stopped for a moment’s rest, when a ball struck and killed him. A tree, not more than eighteen inches in diameter, which was in front of General Lew. Wallace’s division, bore the marks of more than ninety balls within ten feet of the ground.

THE ARTILLERY AND REGIMENTS ENGAGED.

A record of the dead, wounded and missing in that fearful battle, bears sure evidence of the almost superhuman bravery with which it was contested.

The Illinois men, already famous at Donelson, fought like tigers to sustain their well-earned reputation. Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and some of the Iowa regiments, won imperishable laurels. The First and Second Kentucky were gloriously brave in the fight. They, as well as the Sixth, were under fire more than five hours, yet when the enemy turned their faces toward Mississippi, they were ready and eager to follow. The Ohio Fifty-fourth, Zouave regiment, were at their post in the thickest of the fight. Also the Fifty-seventh, who remembered well that Ohio expected her buckeye sons to do their duty.

Taylor’s and Waterhouse’s batteries were first in the fight. Two regiments that should have supported the last broke and ran. Waterhouse was wounded in the thigh by a minie ball. Taylor’s battery continued to fight, supported splendidly by the Twenty-third Illinois, until he and his support were outflanked on both sides.

Waterhouse, with his three guns, took up a second position, supported by the second brigade of McClernand’s division, Colonel Marsh commanding. During the forenoon they were compelled to retire through their own encampment, with heavy loss, into the woods. There a second line of battle was formed, when McClernand ordered an advance. A hundred rods brought the solid columns within sight of the rebels, and then followed one of the most fiercely contested and sanguinary engagements of that desperate field. It resulted in the repulse of the rebels, who were driven back through the Union encampments. Then the enemy was reinforced, and Colonel Marsh, finding his ammunition nearly expended, was compelled to retreat before the overwhelming forces of the enemy.

On Monday a fine Michigan battery, captured by the enemy the day before, was retaken by the Sixteenth Wisconsin, at the point of the bayonet. The fight, after taking this battery, was conducted by General Beauregard in person. In his efforts to recover it he was wounded in the arm. He was successful in taking it, but it was again wrested from him. This battery was retaken and recaptured no less than six times.

Company A of the Chicago Light Artillery, so severely handled on the first day, was only able to man three guns on Monday; but with these, after a desperate contest, they succeeded in silencing and capturing a rebel battery of six guns. They were, however, compelled to abandon it from want of horses.

The report of General Lew. Wallace especially commended the Nebraska First, the Twentieth, Fifty-eighth, Seventy-sixth and Seventy-eighth Ohio, and the Twenty-third Indiana. The Indiana Twenty-fifth literally covered itself with glory. The Indiana Sixth, Ninth, Eleventh, Thirty-first, Thirty-second, Twenty-fourth, Forty-third and Fifty-seventh all performed most honorable parts in the terrible drama.

Of the United States regulars, there was a fine representation. They were used at those points where the utmost steadiness was demanded, and fought with consummate skill and determination.

The losses of the Illinois regiments in McClernand’s division were very heavy, in officers and men. On Sunday, company A, of the Forty-ninth Illinois, lost from one volley twenty-nine men, including three officers; and on Monday morning the company appeared on the ground commanded by a second sergeant. General McClernand’s third brigade, which was led by Colonel Raith until he was mortally wounded, changed commanders three times during the battle. On Monday morning, one of General Hurlbut’s regiments (the Third Iowa) was commanded by a first lieutenant.

General Grant is an illustration of the fortune through which some men, in the thickest showers of bullets, always escape. He has participated in skirmishes and fourteen pitched battles, and is universally pronounced, by those who have seen him on the field, daring even to rashness; but he has never received a scratch. At four o’clock on Sunday evening, he was sitting upon his horse, just in the rear of the Union line of batteries, when Carson, the scout, who had reported to him a moment before, had fallen back, and was holding his horse by the bridle, about seven feet behind him. A six-pound shot, which flew very near General Grant, carried away Carson’s head, passed just behind Lieutenant Graves, volunteer aid to General Wilson, tearing away the cantle of his saddle and cutting his clothing, but leaving him uninjured. It then took off the legs of a soldier in one of General Nelson’s regiments, which was just ascending the bluff.

About the same hour, further up to the right, General Sherman, who had been standing for a moment, while Major Hammond, his chief of staff, was holding his bridle, remounted. By the prancing of his horse, General Sherman’s reins were thrown over his neck, and he was leaning forward in the saddle, with his head lowered, while Major Hammond was bringing them back over his head, when a rifle ball struck the line in Major Hammond’s hand, severing it within two inches of his fingers, and passed through the top and back of General Sherman’s hat. Had he been sitting upright it would have struck his head. At another time a ball struck General Sherman on the shoulder, but his metallic shoulder-strap warded it off. With a third ball he was less fortunate, for it passed through his hand. General Sherman had three horses shot under him, and ranks high among the heroes of that nobly won battle.

General Hurlbut had a six-pound shot pass between his horse’s head and his arm; a bullet hurtled through the animal’s mane, and one of his horses was killed under him.

The statement has gone forth that General Prentiss was made prisoner at the first early onslaught of the enemy, when his division was driven in upon Sherman’s lines. But this is an error. Prentiss’ men fought well even in retiring. They retired to reform, and pursued the conflict up to late in the afternoon, under Prentiss’ personal lead. They maintained a stand on McClernand’s left and Hurlbut’s right. In the thick underbrush where they made their last stand, almost every shrub and bush was struck by bullets; no spot on the entire field evidenced more desperate fighting. The last time General Prentiss met General Hurlbut, he asked him: “Can you hold your line?” General Hurlbut replied, “I think I can.” Not long after he sent a messenger to General Prentiss, to inform him that he was forced back, but the man was probably killed, as he never returned or delivered the message. About the same time, McClernand was forced back on his right, and Prentiss, without knowing that his supports on each side were gone, held his line. The enemy, both on his right and left, was half a mile in his rear before he discovered it, and his capture was inevitable.

Of General Buell’s conduct in battle, one of his men wrote, “I wish you could have seen the gallantry, the bravery, the dauntless daring, the coolness of General Buell. He seemed to be omnipresent. If ever man was qualified to command an army, it is he. He is a great, a very great General, and has proved himself so; not only in organizing and disciplining an army, but in handling it. He had his horse shot under him.”

LOSSES.

The official reports of losses are given in the following tabular statement:

The official report of General Beauregard states the rebel loss to be 1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 959 missing; which is far below the estimated losses of the enemy given by the Federal officers, who buried the dead on the field.

Bravely was that battle contested on both sides. We have described the way in which the Federal Generals fought and won a victory. But the South was gallantly represented—so gallantly, that a victory over such men was worth a double conquest over a meaner foe.

Beauregard seemed omnipresent along his lines throughout that memorable day, striving by expostulation, entreaties, command, exposure of his own person, to stem the tide of defeat; but it was in vain. The steady flank advances of the Federal wings—the solidity of their centre, rendered it necessary to “retreat,” if he would not be cut off entirely. His baffled and somewhat dispirited brigades fell back slowly upon the Corinth road, which, in all the fortunes of the two days’ fight, had been carefully guarded from any approach of the Unionists. The retreat was neither a panic nor a rout. Some regiments threw away their arms, blankets, etc., from exhaustion; great numbers of killed and wounded crowded the army wagons, and much camp equipage was necessarily left behind.

The pursuit was kept up with but little energy. The nature of the woods rendered cavalry movements extremely difficult, and though three thousand splendidly mounted fellows had waited two days for an order to ride into the fray, it came too late for much service. The infantry pushed onward only a mile or two, for being unacquainted with the topography of the country, General Buell considered it dangerous to pursue his advantages any farther.

In giving a record of this contest, one thing is assured—the Union victory was won by the heroic fortitude of men, many of whom never before had been under fire; and the field is written all over with the records of soldiers whose unfaltering heroism gave the name of Pittsburg Landing to the hardest fought and noblest won battle of the American continent.