The Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged

THE BAttLE OF SHILOH AND THE ORGANIZATIONS ENGAGED THE BAttLE OF SHILOH AND THE ORGANIZATIONS ENGAGED DAVI D W. REE D With a New Introduction by Timothy B. Smith The University of Tennessee Press / Knoxville [ Copyright © 2008 by The University of Tennessee Press / Knoxville. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. First Edition. Previously printed in 1902 and 1909 by the Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reed, David W. (David Wilson), b. 1841. The Battle of Shiloh and the organizations engaged / David W. Reed ; with a new introduction by Timothy B. Smith. — 1st ed. p. cm. “Previously printed in 1903 and 1909 by the Government Printing Office, Washington, DC”–T.p. verso. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-57233-617-9 ISBN-10: 1-57233-617-X 1. Shiloh, Battle of, Tenn., 1862. I. Title. E473.54.R34 2008 973.7'31—dc22 2007030416 To Shiloh Soldiers CONTENTS Introduction xi Timothy B. Smith Shiloh National Military Park Commission 2 An Act to Establish a National Military Park at the Battlefield of Shiloh 3 To Shiloh Soldiers 5 Organization of the Commission 6 Shiloh Campaign and Battle 7 Field of Operations 7 The Battle 13 Orders of Battle 24 Organization of the Union Army 24 Organization of the Confederate Army 31 Commanding and Staff Officers 37 Detailed Movements of the Organizations 45 Army of the Tennessee 45 Army of the Ohio 61 Army of the Mississippi 66 Designation of Batteries Mentioned Herein 89 Abstract of Field Returns 90 Army of the Tennessee 90 Army of the Ohio 99 Army of the Mississippi 103 Notes 111 Index 113 FIGURES David W. Reed xiii David and Ellen Reed xiv Iowa Veterans xv David W. Reed and Cornelius Cadle xvi David W. Reed at Shiloh xvii April 6, 1862, Shiloh Map xxiii April 7, 1862, Shiloh Map xxiv MAPS On Enclosed Compact Disc 1. The Field of Operations from Which the Armies Were Concentrated at Shiloh, March and April 1862 2. Shiloh Battlefield Positions on First Day, April 6, 1862 3. Shiloh Battlefield Positions on Second Day, April 7, 1862 4. Positions and Route of the Confederate Army on Its Advance to Shiloh, April 3, 4, 5, and 6, 1862 INTRODUCTION The inquiry I most often received as a park ranger was if I had ever seen a ghost at Shiloh. I always said no. Working at the park for years and actually living on the battlefield a good part of that period have convinced me there are no ghosts at Shiloh. Work-related tasks took me all over the battlefield, some- times at night (when the park is closed) and in the remotest parts. Living at the park often necessitated travel through the battlefield at night and allowed for extremely enjoyable moonlight walks. (There is no more calm and peaceful experience than to take a nighttime walk through the Shiloh National Cemetery down to Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River.) Through it all, I’ve seen many things, but none of them has ever been of a supernatural nature. Many claim that such events do occur, but I fully believe that you see what you con- vince your mind to see. That said, I do believe that the battlefield is filled with the presence of the veterans who fought there. They are there in the monuments and markers, and yes, you can feel their presence on the battlefield. This is not a supernatural presence wherein ghosts of the past are watching over our every move, however, but rather a real connection between modern-day visitors and the veterans who came back years after the battle and set literally in stone the history of their great fight. Not at all unlike the present World War II generation, those veterans wanted to tell future Americans what they had done. It was very important to them. Thus, Shiloh and the many other battlefields estab- lished and marked by the veterans themselves have the stamp of the soldiers on them. Indeed, you can feel their continued presence. At Shiloh, there is no more real presence that David W. Reed. He was the first official historian at the park, and much of what visitors see today is his work. In fact, the staff at Shiloh National Military Park has three main ready sources (without delving into letters, diaries, and manuscript material) to turn to whenever a definitive answer is needed for a detailed or little-known tacti- cal or historic question regarding some action in the battle. David W. Reed produced two of these three seminal sources. One source, of course, is the War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Offi- cial Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. This massive 128-volume set of xii reports and correspondence provides the most insight into any Civil War battle. In Shiloh’s case, volume 10, in two parts, contains 229 different battle reports and correspondence from the commanders. Other Shiloh material appears in various supplemental publications. Such primary, contemporary material is priceless. David W. Reed was a lowly private at the battle, however, and thus he was in no position to write or appear in any of the reports in the Official Records.1 Reed did, however, produce the other two main sources decades later. Whenever there is a question about Shiloh that is not easily answerable, the staff looks to see what the various tablets and monuments on the battlefield say. These markers represent troop movements and were placed on the battlefield at the turn of the century when veterans of the battle were establishing the Shiloh National Military Park. Reed wrote the text for the approximately four hundred iron tablets, and he approved the text for the monuments produced by state commissions. Thus, Reed had his hand in telling the story of Shiloh “in letters of iron” on the battlefield itself. These markers are extremely important today because they offer a connection of both time and space to the veterans themselves and to the units they represent. There is a wealth of spe- cific information on these markers, and anyone performing serious research into Shiloh must use them as a seminal source.2 The third major source for unlocking secrets at Shiloh is Reed’s commission history of the battle: The Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged. Over the years, this slim book, now more than one hundred years old, has been surpassed in style and length by monographs written by modern historians, but Reed’s little book has not been surpassed in clarity, effectiveness, and as a connection to the veterans. Giving a solid overview of the battle as well as a detailed unit synopsis down to the regimental level, Reed’s little book still offers Shiloh enthusiasts and historians a chance to learn.3 O Consequently, David W. Reed remains the foremost Shiloh historian of all time. Many others, such as O. Edward Cunningham, Larry J. Daniel, James Lee McDonough, Wiley Sword, Ed Bearss, George A. Reaves, Stacy D. Allen, and Timothy B. Smith, all have important places in Shiloh historiography. But there is an aspect missing from their views of the battle that Reed’s work possesses. None of them was on hand on those two days in April.4 David W. Reed served at Shiloh, and his words, while no more and in most cases less interpretive than modern academic studies, nevertheless offer an air of immediacy and credibility. Reed knew what it was like to see a massive area covered in white canvass as the Army of the Tennessee camped near Pittsburg Landing and Shiloh Church. He knew what it was like to hear the Rebel yell as the enemy attempted assault after assault on his position. Timothy B. Smith xiii DAVI D W. REE D . Reed rose through the ranks from a private to a captain during his war service. Here he is apparently a second lieutenant. He knew what it was like to smell and taste the black powder in his nose and mouth. And, sadly, he knew what it was like to feel the horror of war, what it was like to have a Minnie ball smash into his thigh, what it was like to endure primitive Civil War medicine. D. W. Reed saw it all and, fortunately, lived through the ordeal to write his history. Reed’s status as a veteran of the battle and as Shiloh National Military Park’s first commission historian surpasses the experience of anyone coming after him.5 The “Father of Shiloh National Military Park” was born on April 2, 1841, in Cortland, New York. In 1855, the Reed family moved to Elon in Allamakee County, Iowa, where the young man grew up working on his father’s farm. At the age of nineteen, in 1860, D. W. Reed enrolled in classes at Upper Iowa University in nearby Fayette, but clouds of civil war loomed on the horizon and then exploded. In response to calls for volunteers, Reed and his friends at Upper Iowa joined together to form an infantry company they called the “University Recruits,” enlisting in the Union army on September 15, 1861. Joining the Twelfth Iowa Infantry forever changed Reed’s life.6 Reed’s muster-in roll listed him as twenty years old and five feet seven inches tall, with hazel eyes and brown hair. He and his regiment trained at “Camp Union” in Dubuque, Iowa, before transferring to Benton Barracks, near St.

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