Richard Brinsley Sheridan - "St. Patrick's Day"

Edward S. Ellis - "The Huge Hunter"

Helen Reimensnyder Martin - "Tillie: A Mennonite Maid"

Unknown - "The World English Bible (WEB): Philemon"

The Guns of Shiloh

J >> Joseph A. Altsheler >> The Guns of Shiloh




It was now 10 o'clock and the new battle had lasted with the utmost fury
and desperation for four hours. Dick, after General Grant rode on,
felt as if a sudden thrill had run through the whole army. He saw
men rising from the earth and tightening their belts. He saw gunners
gathering around their guns and making ready with the ammunition.
He knew the remains of Grant's army were about to march upon the enemy,
helping the Army of the Ohio to achieve the task that had proved so
great.

Sherman, McClernand and other generals now passed among their troops,
cheering them, telling them that the time had come to win back what they
had lost the day before, and that victory was sure. They called upon
them for another great effort, and a shout rolled along the line of
willing soldiers.

Sherman's whole division now raised itself up and rushed at the enemy,
Dick and his comrades in the front of their own regiment. The whole
Northern line was now engaged. Grant, true to his resolution, had
hurled every man and every gun upon his foe.

The Southern generals felt the immense weight of the numbers that were
now driving down upon them. Their decimated ranks could not withstand
the charge of two armies. In the center where Buell's men, having stood
fast from the first, were now advancing, they were compelled to give way
and lost several guns. On the wings the heavy Northern brigades were
advancing also, and the whole Southern line was pushed back. So much
inferior was the South in numbers that her enemy began to overlap her on
the flanks also.

A tremendous shout of exultation swept through the Northern ranks,
as they felt themselves advancing. The promises of their generals were
coming true, and there is nothing sweeter than victory after defeat.
Fortune, after frowning upon her so long, was now smiling upon the
North. The exultant cheer swept through the ranks again, and back came
the defiant rebel yell.

A young soldier often feels what is happening with as true instinct as a
general. Dick now knew that the North would recover the field, and that
the South, cut down fearfully, though having performed prodigies of
valor, must fight to save herself. He felt that the resistance in front
of them was no longer invincible. He saw in the flash of the firing
that the Southern ranks were thin, very thin, and he knew that there was
no break in their own advance.

Now the sanguine Northern generals planned the entire destruction of
the Southern army. There was only one road by which Beauregard could
retreat to Corinth. A whole Northern division rushed in to block the
way. Sherman, in his advance, came again to the ground around the
little Methodist chapel of Shiloh which he had defended so well the
day before, and crowded his whole force upon the Southern line at that
point. Once more the primitive church in the woods looked down upon one
of the most sanguinary conflicts of the whole war. If Sherman could
break through the Southern line here Beauregard's whole army would be
lost.

But the Southern soldiers were capable of another and a mighty effort.
Their generals saw the danger and acted with their usual promptness and
decision. They gathered together their shattered brigades and hurled
them like a thunderbolt upon the Union left and center. The shock was
terrific. Sherman, with all his staunchness and the valor of his men,
was compelled to give way. McClernand, too, reeled back, others were
driven in also. Whole brigades and regiments were cut to pieces or
thrown in confusion. The Southerners cut a wide gap in the Northern
army, through which they rushed in triumph, holding the Corinth road
against every attack and making their rear secure.

Sherman's division, after its momentary repulse, gathered itself anew,
and, although knowing now that the Southern army could not be entrapped,
drove again with all its might upon the positions around the church.
They passed over the dead of the day before, and gathered increasing
vigor, as they saw that the enemy was slowly drawing back.

Grant reformed his line, which had been shattered by the last fiery and
successful attack of the South. Along the whole long line the trumpets
sang the charge, and brigades and batteries advanced.

But the end of Shiloh was at hand. Despite the prodigies of valor
performed by their men, the Southern generals saw that they could not
longer hold the field. The junction of Grant and Buell, after all,
had proved too much for them. The bugles sounded the retreat, and
reluctantly they gave up the ground which they had won with so much
courage and daring. They retreated rather as victors than defeated men,
presenting a bristling front to the enemy until their regiments were
lost in the forest, and beating off every attempt of skirmishers or
cavalry to molest them.

It was the middle of the afternoon when the last shot was fired, and the
Southern army at its leisure resumed its march toward Corinth, protected
on the flanks by its cavalry, and carrying with it the assurance that
although not victorious over two armies it had been victorious over one,
and had struck the most stunning blow yet known in American history.

When the last of the Southern regiments disappeared in the deep woods,
Dick and many of those around him sank exhausted upon the ground.
Even had they been ordered to follow they would have been incapable of
it. Complete nervous collapse followed such days and nights as those
through which they had passed.

Nor did Grant and Buell wish to pursue. Their armies had been too
terribly shaken to make another attack. Nearly fifteen thousand of
their men had fallen and the dead and wounded still lay scattered widely
through the woods. The South had lost almost as many. Nearly a third
of her army had been killed or wounded in the battle, and yet they
retired in good order, showing the desperate valor of these sons of hers.

The double army which had saved itself, but which had yet been unable to
destroy its enemy, slept that night in the recovered camp. The generals
discussed in subdued tones their narrow escape, and the soldiers,
who now understood very well what had happened, talked of it in the same
way.

"We knew that it was going to be a big war," said Dick, "but it's going
to be far bigger than we thought."

"And we won't make that easy parade down to the Gulf," said Warner.
"I'm thinking that a lot of lions are in the path."

"But we'll win!" said Dick. "In the end we'll surely win!"

Then after dreaming a little with his eyes open he fell asleep,
gathering new strength for mighty campaigns yet to come.





Appendix: Transcription notes:

This etext was transcribed from a volume of the 22nd printing


The following modifications were applied while transcribing the
printed book to e-text:

chapter 2
- Page 40, para 6, changed comma to period

chapter 3
- Page 59, para 3, fixed mis-printed quotation mark

chapter 4
- Page 73, para 6, fixed typo ("thy")
- Page 74, para 1, add missing end-quote

chapter 5
- Page 95, para 3, add missing end-quote
- Page 102, para 5, add missing comma

chapter 6
- Page 118, para 3, fixed typo ("lenghening")
- Page 119, para 6, fixed typo ("untils")
- Page 120, para 3, fixed typo ("alrming")

chapter 7
- Page 139, para 4, add missing begin-quote

chapter 9
- Page 184, para 2, add missing begin-quote

chapter 10
- Page 197, para 7, fixed typo ("Your're")

chapter 15
- Page 299, para 2, fixed typo ("genuis")

chapter 16
- Page 331, para 2, fixed typo (changed "not" to "nor")

Limitations imposed by converting to plain ASCII:

- Throughout the printed book, in any quasi-mathematical passages
which use the variables "x" and "y", those variable names are
presented in italics. Italics are not available in plain ASCII.


I did not modify:

- The printed book sometimes uses the spelling "despatch", other
times "dispatch". Also, both "intrenchments" and "entrenchments".

- Chapter 12, page 245, "grewsome"

- There are a number of instances where the use of the comma in the
printed book seems to me inappropriate, mainly in terms of commas
inserted where I would not insert them, and also sometimes commas
lacking where I would provide them. However, I have adhered to
the punctuation as printed (except for obvious printing errors,
which are noted above).

For example:

The hills rolled far away southward, and under the horizon's rim.

The three bade farewell to the young operator, then to almost all
of Hubbard and proceeded in a trot for the pass.

One day Major Hertford sent Dick, Warner, and Sergeant Whitley,
ahead to scout.

The two young aides carried away by success and the fire of
battle, waved their swords continually and rushed at the
enemy's lines.

Duck River, which Buell was compelled to cross, was swollen like
all the other streams of the region, by the great rains and was
forty feet deep.

- The author sometimes uses a technique whereby a paragraph introducing
a quotation ends with a colon, with the quotation following as the
next paragraph.

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