"I feel it a duty, to a gallant and able officer, Brigadier-General W. T. Sherman, to make special mention. He not only was with his command during the entire two days of the action, but displayed great judgment and skill in the management of his men; although severely wounded in the hand on the first day, his place was never vacant. He was again wounded, and had three horses killed under him. In making this mention of a gallant officer no disparagement is intended to other Division Commanders or Major-Generals, Jno. A. McClernand, and Lewis Wallace, and Brigadier-Generals Hurlbut, Prentiss, and W. H. L. Wallace, all of whom maintained their places with credit to themselves and the cause." A characteristic private letter of Sherman's will be read with interest at this point. It was written many years after the battle of Shiloh, and was addressed to Mr. Marshall P. Wilder, who had sent to Sherman a copy of a paper containing a sketch of Shiloh as seen from the rear of the army by a drummer boy. This is the letter: "NO. 75 WEST SEVENTY-FIRST STREET, "NEW YORK, Jan. 1st, 1890. "MY DEAR FRIEND: I thank you for sending me the printed paper containing the observations and experiences of our friend about the battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburgh Landing, April 6th and 7th, 1862. Having leisure this New Year's Day I have read every word of it, and from his standpoint as a boy in the rear of where the hard fighting was done his account is literally true. His father (a noble gentleman) and I were fighting for time--because our enemy for the moment outnumbered us, and we had good reason to expect momentarily Lew. Wallace's Division, only six miles off, and Buell's whole army, only twenty miles away. By contesting every foot of ground the enemy was checked till night. Our reinforcements came on the 7th, we swept on in front and pursued a retreating enemy ten miles, and afterwards followed up to Corinth, Memphis, Vicksburg, etc., to the end. "That bloody battle was fought April 6th and 7th, 1862. After we had actually driven our assailants back to Corinth, twenty-six miles, we received the St. Louis, Cincinnati and Louisville newspapers, from which we learned that we were 'surprised,' bayonetted in our beds (blankets on the ground), and disgracefully routed. These reports were heard at the river bank and from steamboats under high pressure to get well away, and such is history.