were considered well nigh impregnable it was necessary to resort to some stratagem, for which Kilpatrick showed a becoming aptness.

Having approached to within hearing distance of the Rebel pickets, but before we were challenged, Kilpatrick shouted with his clear voice, which sounded like a trumpet on the still night air :

"Bring up your artillery in the centre and infantry on the left!"

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"Well, but, Colonel," replied an honest though rather obtuse captain, "we haven't got any inf-." "Silence in the ranks !" commanded the leader. "Artillery in the centre, infantry on the left!"

The pickets caught and spread the alarm, and thus greatly facilitated our hazardous enterprise.

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Charge!" was the order which then thrilled the ranks, and echoed through the dark dismal woods, and the column swept up the rugged Heights in the midst of blazing cannon and rattling musketry. So steep was the ascent that not a few saddles slipped off the horses, precipitating their riders into a creek which flowed lazily at the base of the hill, while others fell dead and dying struck by the missiles of destruction which at times filled the air. But our first field was won; and the enemy driven at the point of the sabre, fled unceremoniously down the Heights, through Falmouth, and over the bridge which spanned the Rappahannock, burning the beautiful structure behind them to prevent pursuit.

CHAPTER XII.

PITTSBURG LANDING.

The Log Cabin Church.-Buell's March from Nashville.-The Union Camp Surprised.-The Rude Awakening.-Sleep Exchanged for Death.-Rally of the Boys in Blue.-Slaughter from the Woods.Stand on the Corinth Road.--The Brave Resistance.-The Wave of Rebellion Hurled Back.-Six Hours of Magnificent Fighting.A Glorious Record.-Wallace Falls.-The Impregnable Line.— Tyler and Lexington Gunboats.-Death of Confederate Johnston.Buell Reaches the Landing.-Last Day's Fight.-Capture of Field Peices.-Confederates in Retreat.-Splendid Victory.-Harvest of

Death.

A

small log cabin named Shiloh Church, on the western bank of the Tennessee river, about twenty miles north of Corinth, Mississippi, divides with Pittsburg Landing the honor of transmitting its name to the bloody engagement fought here, April sixth, 1862.

Early in March this movement up the Tennessee was projected, and Major-General C. F. Smith, with his command, occupied Savannah on the eleventh. Savannah is ten miles above Pittsburg Landing and consequently about thirty miles from Corinth. For strategic reasons General Smith removed his troops to Pittsburg Landing-a movement which General Grant approved, on his arrival there the latter part of March. It was designed to make the Tennessee River a base of operations and cut off

communication between West Tennessee and the Eastern and Southern States. General Buell at Nashville with the Army of the Ohio, was directed to co-operate with Grant in the expected movement. This being suspected by the Rebels, they determined to attack Grant at Pittsburg Landing before he could be re-inforced by Buell. Beauregard held a strong force at Corinth to which were added the two divisions under General Polk from Columbus. and the corps of General Bragg from Pensacola.

General Albert Sidney Johnston, chief in command at Corinth, on April third issued an address to his army, and an order, dividing it into three corps,-the first under General Polk, the second under Bragg and the third under Hardee; while General Crittenden was assigned to a reserve consisting of two brigades.

Of this force, numbering about fifty thousand men, General Johnston was chief and Beauregard second in command. On April fifth, the army of West Tennessee, under General Grant at Pittsburg Landing, comprised five divisions-Major-General McClernand, Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace, Major-General Lewis Wallace, Brigadier-General Hurlbut and Brigadier-General W. T. Sherman commanding respectively.

The division of General Lew Wallace was six miles below Pittsburg Landing at a place known as Crump's Landing, while the rest of the Union forces remained in the vicinity of the Shiloh log church.

Twenty miles away, Buell's forces were slowly approaching, the condition of the roads greatly impeding their progress. In hourly expectation of their ar

rival, the army on the west bank of the Tennessee awaited them. Occupying the ground between Owl Creek and Lick Creek-two streams which run at right angles to the Tennessee, three miles apart-the Union command was arranged as follows: Sherman's division held the extreme right, resting on Owl Creek, about three miles from the Landing, McClernand's division was next, the sub-division of McClernand's command under Prentiss, came next on the left, resting on Lick Creek, three miles from the Tennessee, while the division of W. H. L. Wallace acted as a support to Sherman and McClernand, and Hurlbut supported the left wing under Prentiss. In addition to this force, several gun-boats, among which were the Tyler and Lexington, were anchored off the Landing ready to assist with their broadsides of shot and shell, whenever the tide of battle called them into action.

On the morning of the third, Johnston's troops were marching from Corinth towards the Tennessee, but did not reach the neighborhood of the Federal position until the evening of the fifth. The Confederate force was formed in three parallel lines wih an interval of eight hundred yards between the first and second line, the corps of Polk forming the third line in columns of brigades. Breckenridge held the reserves, and batteries were placed in the rear of each brigade. General Hardee commanded the first line which extended from Owl Creek on the left, to Lick Creek on the right. Bragg was in command of the second line.

At six o'clock on the morning of the sixth, the Confederate advance suddenly drove in the pickets of Prentiss' corps. The Union camp, not yet awakened

from sleep, was surprised by the enemy who rushed upon them firing as they came and charging with the bayonet. Then ensued a scene of panic and heartrending confusion. Union soldiers rushed from their tents, weaponless, hatless and coatless, towards the river, and many were shot dead on the way; others quietly exchanged the rosy sleep of life for the pallid repose of death, pierced with a fatal bullet before their eyes unclosed to behold the dawn. Others, it is said, surrendered only to be shot on the spot. Officers wounded and left for dead in their tents, were found two days afterwards, yet alive to tell the sickening tale, though suffering untold agonies. The sub-division of Prentiss and Hildebrand's brigade of Sherman's division were thus driven by the enemy, but the remainder of Sherman's division sprang to their arms and formed in line barely in time to receive the advancing legions of the Confederates and partially check their terrible onset. This movement enabled them to retire to a ridge in their rear-the key-point of the Landing-where by their firmness they repelled every attempt of the enemy to turn their flank. By this time the whole army was aroused to the peril of the attack, and McClernand soon formed his right to sustain Sherman. The corps of Prentiss was partially rallied in an open space surrounded by scrub oaks, from which the Confederates concealed there, slaughtered them without mercy. General Prentiss with two entire regiments were taken prisoners and the subdivision was disorganized. The division of W. H. L. Wallace now pressed forward to support Stuart of Sherman's division, but lost its way and was repulsed.