Speaking of this battle General Sherman has said: “I remember well that Col. Thomas W. Sweeny, a one-armed officer who had lost an arm in the Mexican war and did not belong to my command, stood near by and quickly spoke up: ‘I understand perfectly what you want; let me do it.’ ‘Certainly,’ said I; ‘Sweeny, go at once and occupy that ravine, converting it into a regular bastion.’ He did it, and I attach more importance to that event than to any of the hundred achievements which I have since heard ‘saved the day,’ for we held that line and ravine all night, and the next morning advanced from there to certain victory.” In this battle Sweeny was again wounded, “receiving a minié ball in his remaining arm and another shot in his foot, while his horse fell riddled with seven balls. Almost fainting from loss of blood, he was lifted upon another horse and remained on the field through the entire day. His coolness and his marvelous escapes were talked of before many campfires throughout the army.” Capt. C. H. Fish, Fifty-second Illinois, speaking of the first day’s battle at Shiloh, wrote of Sweeny: “Colonel Sweeny came riding up the line and reached our regiment, but not recognizing it, asked: ‘What regiment is this?’ On my telling him it was the Fifty-second Illinois, he said: ‘Well, I am at home once more. I guess I will stay here.’ Our colonel had only one arm—the left one; the other he lost in Mexico. When on drill or review he held the reins in his teeth and sword in left hand. The balls seemed to fill the air at this moment, the firing was so terrific, but our colonel [Sweeny] coolly sat on his horse, quietly smoking a cigar, ever and anon removing it and puffing forth vast quantities of smoke. Presently a minié ball came cutting through the air, struck his cigar, and cut it off at his teeth, doing some slight injury to his moustache. Yet not a muscle moved. He quietly replaced the cigar with a fresh one and smoked away.” After the battle of Shiloh, Sweeny was granted a leave of absence owing to disability resulting from wounds received. During this period he was presented an elegant sword by the city of Brooklyn, N. Y. At the expiration of his leave, he again took the field, returning in time to participate in the battle of Iuka and the siege of Corinth—Oct. 3 and 4, 1862,—where he was again wounded, and had a horse shot under him. Gen. Thomas A. Davies, commanding the Second Division, in his report of the battle of Corinth, states that “Colonel Sweeny, commanding First Brigade, behaved in the most gallant manner throughout, and should be immediately promoted.”