Today in History:

201 Series I Volume X-I Serial 10 - Shiloh Part I

Page 201 Chapter XXII. PITTSBURG LANDING, OR SHILOH, TENN.

Our loss is 2 killed, and 1 mortally, 8 severely, and 21 slightly wounded.*

I am, your obedient servant,

CHAS. WHITTLESEY,

Colonel, comdg. Third Brig., Third Div., Army of the Tennessee.

Captain FRED. KNEFLER,

A. A. G., Third Division, District of West Tennessee.


Numbers 42. Report of Lieutenant Colonel Manning F. Force, Twentieth Ohio Infantry.

CAMP SHILOH, April 25, 1862.

CAPTAIN: The Twentieth Ohio, under my command (Colonel Whittlesey commanding the brigade), arrived after dark from Adamsville at the camp of the Fifty-first Ohio, near Pittsburg Landing. It was posted for the night on the northern slope of a ravine, and there lay on their arms in line of battle till morning. My picket, in taking post, encountered a mounted picket of the enemy, who hastily withdrew. Changing the position of the picket, at the beginning of dawn I went on the high land on the opposite side of the ravine with the lieutenant of the guard and there found one of the rebel pickets. Returning, the regiment took post as ordered by Colonel Whittlesey; Company D, Captain McElroy, was stationed in a log house outside of the extreme right and the other companies drawn in line in a slight hollow. The enemy promptly began fire with musketry and hollow shot, but soon ceased.

The brigade then marched across the ravine in line; the Twentieth, on the left and in the rear as a reserve, advanced across an open field and into the woods, keeping to the right of the Second Brigade and at the extreme right of our army. Company A, Captain William Rogers, was sent in advance as skirmishers, and the brigade halted on the crest of a steep hill, where the enemy's guns, at 800 yards, opened an occasional fire upon us, but the men being kept lying down behind the crest, only one man (a private of Company K) was wounded.

Under an order from Colonel Whittlesey bayonets were fixed and the regiment (with the Seventy-sixth) marched down the hill and along a valley filled with morass and almost impenetrable thicket toward the battery which had played upon us. This valley was evidently regarded as impracticable and as a sufficient defense. While in that position, however, some loud command drew attention and we were fired upon with spherical case shot. Only one (a private of company K) was wounded. The battery withdrew before we emerged upon high ground. Here we were halted near General Sherman's camp, while one of his brigades (Colonel Stuart's) filed by to take part in the very hot contest then raging in front. Company A, having taken two prisoners, here took its place in the battalion. Word coming to the brigade for assistance, we were marched by the flank to the right and then forward toward the firing. Just the, sharp firing suddenly breaking out still farther to the right, we were again marched by the flank to the right. Here, the Seventy-sixth being ordered to take place temporarily in

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*But see revised statement, p. 102.

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Page 201 Chapter XXII. PITTSBURG LANDING, OR SHILOH, TENN.