Drake Family History Part 8 Page 7  - 22nd Alabama

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Part Eight, Page Seven

The Battle of Shiloh

22nd Alabama Infantry Regiment

(07 April 1862, Dawn to  5:00 P.M.)

 

    About midnight on 7 April, Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest ordered some of his men to dress in captured Union uniforms and reconnoiter the Federal lines.  A detachment of scouts under Lieutenant Sheridan set out and discovered Buell's debarking troops.  They quickly returned to camp and reported their findings to Colonel Forrest.  Understanding the importance of this information, Forrest immediately mounted his horse and set out to find the nearest corps commander.  He found Hardee and Breckenridge nearby, who ordered him to take the news directly to General Beauregard.  Unfortunately, Beauregard retired without establishing a central headquarters and Forrest never found him.  After receiving a like report at 2:00 a.m., Colonel Forrest returned to Hardee and was told to maintain a vigilant watch.  Beauregard never received the news. 70

    As dawn began to break, the Confederate forces were in a complete disarray.  Brigades and regiments were broken up and bivouacked in different parts of the battlefield.  When Colonel Preston Pond awoke Monday morning, he found his brigade alone and dangerously exposed nearly one mile in front of the entire Confederate Army.  Regiment commanders were searching for higher officers and instructions on how to conduct the affairs of the coming day.  Beauregard and Bragg were peacefully asleep in Sherman's captured tent, expecting the day's fighting to end in a complete defeat of Grant's army.  Neither one knowing that Buell and Wallace had arrived during the night, bringing nearly twenty-five thousand fresh troops. 71

    The Federal lines formed, with Buell on the left.  Wallace took the Union right and remnants of Grant's other divisions formed in the center. 72    Bull Nelson's division was the first to engage.  About 3:00 a.m., the rain began to subside and Nelson's troops moved slowly through the broken trees, mud and heavy underbrush.  At 5:20, Hazen's brigade came in contact with some skirmishers of Forrest's cavalry who offered some light resistance.  As Hazen approached Wicker Field, above Bloody Pond, they found three guns of an apparently unsupported Confederate battery.  Hazen's skirmishers ran across the clearing towards the cannon and were met by Chalmers brigade and the first heavy fighting of the morning began. 73

Jones Field 630.jpg (101248 bytes)    Preston Pond was positioned in front of a ravine on the north side of Jones Field.  At 6:30 a.m., Lew Wallace's skirmishers and Thompson's 9th Indiana Artillery opened fire on Pond's brigade at four hundred yards.  Ketchum's Alabama Battery came forward and the two units exchanged artillery fire until 7:00 a.m.  Pond's infantry was forced to withdraw by 9:00 a.m. to the Purdy-Hamburg road, while Ketchum's Battery and the Texas Rangers remained behind to conduct a rear-guard action.  Shortly, they too withdrew to a position southeast of Jones Field.  About 9:00 o'clock, Gibson's brigade advanced towards Jones Field with S. A. M. Wood's brigade two hundred yards in advance and on his right. 74

    At daylight, Colonel Deas sent Captain R. J. Hill to search for General Withers' division and to get information.  Captain Hill soon returned with news that the enemy were advancing.  Deas assembled his two-regiment brigade and marched over to Jones field.  Here General Ruggles was forming a line of mixed regiments and Deas' men were positioned on the extreme left of this line.  Ruggles' line of infantry was backed by Ketchum's, Smith's and Girardey's batteries. 75, 76Confederate Left 900 am.JPG (94630 bytes)

    By 10:00 a.m., Thompson's Battery had pulled back to replenish its caissons and was replaced in the center of Jones Field by Thurber's Battery I, 1st Missouri Light Artillery.  Two companies of the Texas Rangers made a cavalry dash against Thurber's battery but were easily repelled by skirmishers of the 8th Missouri.  Gibson's brigade made the next charge and were also driven back, but not before the 1st Arkansas captured one gun. 77  From a nearby strip of timber, Wallace's infantry fired on the Arkansas troops, forcing them to retreat before they could move the gun. 78  Wallace then moved Smith's brigade of one Missouri and two Indiana regiments in front of Thurber's guns. 79

Jones Field 1030 - 22nd Advance.jpg (91617 bytes)    The 22nd Alabama, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Marrast, received orders to advance and moved forward three hundred yards in the direction of enemies batteries, where they took cover in a hollow.  From this position, Marrast "threw out a skirmishing party of twenty men, under command of Captain Hart, of Company K." 80  At 10:30, Wallace's men began a general advance towards the Confederate lines.  Deas then  found skirmishers on his left and rear and the order was given to fall back to their first position. 81 Captain Hart did not hear the call to return and Marrast ordered Lieutenant Wood of Company I, with 2 men, to ascend the hill and warn Hart's skirmishing party.  Hart and his men all safely returned, but reported not seeing Lieutenant Wood.  The three men were never seen again and Marrast assumed they had been taken prisoner. 82

    In this new position, under the crest of a hill, the 22nd Alabama and the 1st Louisiana offered support for two Confederate batteries, probably those of Ketchum and Smith.  The regiments lay in this position for about two hours, when Bragg ordered them to attack a force on their left.  Having been placed again on the extreme left of the line, Deas' brigade advanced some three hundred yards towards the enemy'sConfederate Line at Purdy Road 1030 to 100.jpg (115144 bytes) position.  During this advance, Deas was joined by the 4th Kentucky Infantry, making the number under Deas' command something less than five hundred men.  The unit advanced until it came under cover of some timber and there engaged two enemy brigades.  During this engagement, the main line fell back to its original position, leaving Deas' command isolated and alone.  This unequal struggle continued for the space of nearly one half hour, resulting in severe casualties, with nearly one half of Deas' men killed or wounded.  Deas' then ordered his men to fall back to their position in the main line, which was done in good order. 83, 84  A second advance against the enemy position was attempted.  According to Marrast, they advanced some two hundred yards where he placed the men under cover of timber and opened fire.  The enemy return fire was very heavy and the small brigade sustained the attack for only a few minutes before falling back. 85  

    General Bragg positioned the Confederate left in a new line north of Shiloh Church and on either side of the Pittsburg-Corinth Road.  He then called for reinforcements, and Beauregard committed Preston Pond's brigade. 86  Deas again formed his brigade, now numbering only 60 men, on the extreme left of the Confederate line.  Under command of General Beauregard, another advance of some 100 to 200 yards was attempted but the Shiloh Church Battle Line.jpg (105956 bytes) line soon fell back under orders.  In this attack, Colonel Deas' second horse was killed and he was compelled, from the loss of blood due to wounds received hours earlier, to retire from the field.  From this point, the 22nd Alabama was represented in every movement made toward the enemy, never retreating without an order.  87, 88

    By 2:30 p.m., Bragg's line on the Confederate left was beginning to crumble as was the remainder of the Confederate force.  Colonel Jordan described the army to General Beauregard as being somewhat like a lump of wet sugar, still holding its shape, but ready to dissolve at any moment.  The General then expressed his intention to withdraw the army.  Preparations were made and a company of cavalry was sent to the rear to repair the roads.  Colonel Jordan was commanded to place a rear-guard on the ridge south of Shiloh Church. 89 Marrast reported that he was informed by the officer in command of Ketchum's battery that he had been deserted by the troops left for his support.  The services of the 22nd were volunteered and the regiment remained on the field until the horses and gunners were removed from the two guns, which had to be abandoned.  According to Marrast, when his men left this position, not a man of the Confederate army was left in front of his command. 90

    The command ordering a general retreat was given about 3:00 p.m. and between 5:00 and 6:00 o'clock, the last of the infantry had left the battlefield.  Except for a few minor skirmishes, the fighting was over.  For the Confederate Army, the march back to Corinth was miserable.  The roads were scattered with the mangled bodies of the dead.  Everywhere, could be heard the cries of the wounded.  The rain again began to fall and the men marched through knee-deep mud.  They spent the long night in silence, lying in the mud under the driving rain.  In the Federal camps, conditions were just as miserable.  Two Federal soldiers, soaked and shivering from the cold, were standing out in the rain over a mortally wounded Confederate who was covered with an Army blanket.  They waited for him to die, then sought shelter and warmth together under the discarded blanket. 91 

    The Confederates needed a complete victory if they were to have any hope of winning the war.  In the aftermath of the defeat at Shiloh, the Confederacy lost nearly all of its lands in the western theater.  Although the Union Armies were victorious, any hopes for a swift end to the war were dashed.  They now knew they were facing a formidable foe who possessed as much will and courage to sacrifice for his cause as the Union did for theirs.  The battle at Shiloh was the bloodiest ever fought on American soil until that time.  The Confederate Army of the Mississippi had thrown 44,699 men into the battle, and suffered losses of 10,699 (1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded and 959 missing).  As for the Union armies of Grant and Buell, 66,812 men were placed on the field during the two days and casualties totaled 13,047 (1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded and 2,885 missing).  The 22nd Alabama began the conflict with 435 men and officers and lost more than 375.  In his report of 25 April 1862, Deas' reported that only 60 men under his command were available for Beauregard's last attack, including those of the 1st Louisiana.  According to Larry J. Daniel, in his book, Shiloh, the Battle That Changed the Civil War, the 23,000 combined losses for both armies nearly doubled those at Manassas, Wilson's Creek, Fort Donelson, and Pea Ridge combined.  The two days of fighting had produced more casualties than had been lost in all of America's previous wars, and with the battles of Chancellorsville, Chickamauga and Gettysburg still on the horizon, this one would continue for another three years. 92

 

    70 Wiley Sword, Shiloh: Bloody April, pages 378, 379

    71 Wiley Sword, Shiloh: Bloody April, page 386

    72 James Arnold, Shiloh 1862, pages 74, 75

    73 Wiley Sword, Shiloh: Bloody April, pages 383, 384

    74 Larry J. Daniel, Shiloh, The Battle That Changed the Civil War, page 278, 279

    75 Official Records, Chapter XXII page 539

    76 Larry J. Daniel, Shiloh, The Battle That Changed the Civil War, page 280

    77 Larry J. Daniel, Shiloh, The Battle That Changed the Civil War, page 279, 280

    78 Wiley Sword, Shiloh: Bloody April, pages 383, 384

    79 Larry J. Daniel, Shiloh, The Battle That Changed the Civil War, page 280

    80 Official Records, Chapter XXII page 542

    81 Official Records, Chapter XXII page 539

    82 Official Records, Chapter XXII pages 542, 543

    83 Official Records, Chapter XXII page 539

    84 Official Records, Chapter XXII page 543

    85 Official Records, Chapter XXII page 543

    86 Larry J. Daniel, Shiloh, The Battle That Changed the Civil War, page 289

    87 Official Records, Chapter XXII page 539

    88 Official Records, Chapter XXII page 543

    89 Larry J. Daniel, Shiloh, The Battle That Changed the Civil War, pages 289, 290

    90 Official Records, Chapter XXII page 543

    91 Wiley Sword, Shiloh: Bloody April, pages 416, 422

    92 Larry J. Daniel, Shiloh, The Battle That Changed the Civil War, pages 305, 322

 

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