Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman.: Late Retired General. U. S. A.Johnson, Willis Fletcher
History
Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman.: Late Retired General. U. S. A.
Johnson, Willis Fletcher
Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891
To the right of this was Colonel Buckland's Brigade, composed of the
Seventy-second Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel Canfield; Forty-eighth Ohio,
Colonel Sullivan, and Seventieth Ohio, Colonel Cockerell.
And on the extreme right, Colonel McDowell's Brigade, Sixth Iowa,
(Colonel McDowell--Lieutenant-Colonel commanding;) Fortieth Illinois,
Colonel Hicks, Forty-sixth Ohio, Colonel Thomas Worthington.
General Prentiss's Division was composed of the Twelfth Michigan,
Sixteenth Wisconsin, Eighteenth Wisconsin, Eighteenth Missouri,
Twenty-third Missouri, Twenty-fifth Missouri, and Sixty-first Illinois.
CHAPTER XII.
"AGATE'S" STORY CONTINUED.
THE BATTLE OF SUNDAY, APRIL 6TH--THE UNION TROOPS SURPRISED--AN
ARMY IN DISORDER--SHERMAN'S HEROIC EFFORT TO STEM THE TIDE--
McCLERNAND'S SHARE IN THE BATTLE--THE REBELS PRESSING THEIR
ADVANTAGE--THE ASSAULT ON SHERMAN'S LEFT--MEN TOO BRAVE TO BE
KILLED--DESPERATE POSITION OF THE UNION ARMY--LOOKING TO THE
GUNBOATS FOR AID--THREE DESPERATE CHARGES REPULSED--DEATH OF
GENERAL WALLACE.
"Agate" continues the story of the great battle of Sunday, April 6th,
as follows:
Almost at dawn, Prentiss's pickets were driven in; a very little later
Hildebrand's (in Sherman's Division) were; and the enemy were in the
camps almost as soon as were the pickets themselves.
Here began scenes which, let us hope, will have no parallel in our
remaining annals of the war. Some, particularly among our officers,
were not yet out of bed. Others were dressing, others washing, others
cooking, a few eating their breakfasts. Many guns were unloaded,
accoutrements lying pell-mell, ammunition was ill-supplied--in short,
the camps were virtually surprised--disgracefully, it might be added,
unless someone can hereafter give some yet undiscovered reason to the
contrary--and were taken at almost every possible disadvantage.
The first wild cries from the pickets rushing in, and the few
scattering shots that preceded their arrival, aroused the regiments
to a sense of their peril; an instant afterward shells were hurling
through the tents, while, before there was time for thought of
preparation, there came rushing through the woods with lines of battle
sweeping the whole fronts of the division-camps, and bending down on
either flank, the fine, dashing, compact columns of the enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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