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The bloody day had turned toward its evening; its sulphurous smoke was getting thicker around our beloved chieftain. Sherman on the right had commenced forming his last lines; their coign of vantage called the "Hornet's Nest" was being girdled with bayonet and crested with cannon, and their troops were gradually driven in toward it. Later than this, perhaps about four o'clock, Gibson and his Louisianians suffered greatly. General Johnston was closing in rapidly; the lines were narrowing, and the last camps taken. Right here, we were left by the general, and we did not see him again.

It must have been about half past two in the afternoon that his preparations for the final blow were made. A part of a brigade was sweeping forward toward the position we occupied. Some troops in the last camp were fighting with platoon front—an old formation adapted to defile firing. The troops were in column, platoon front, all moving forward; the first platoon would fire, then break in the center, counter-march to the rear, and expose the second platoon, which went through the same movement; then third, then fourth, all the time the whole body of men moving forward. It was a beautiful movement, and at school under Gilman's old tactics I had drilled in the same, and it deeply interested me. During the whole war I never saw it repeated.

General Johnston was near the tents with his back turned, looking to the rear and over and beyond us. The smoke was dense, the din cataclysmal. Looking toward us, the general pointed to a nearby depression in the ground—no word was spoken or could be heard. Captain Gaines understood it as an order to uncover the front of a regiment of infantry that was approaching the general in line of battle. I was very near to its right flank as it passed us, and knowing of the fierce grapple that was awaiting it, I looked into the faces of the men, who were trying to keep in regular order as they advanced over the rough uneven ground. They were pale but steady, seemingly intent on every order shouted by regimental or company officers.

In this water-painting, Confederates attack the Union positions at Shiloh

General Johnston still sat his horse, calm and immovable, watching them. When they came, say within twenty feet of him, with a slight motion of his hand, as if in salute, he turned his horse and rode slowly in their front, and directly all had disappeared. That was our last glimpse of Johnston through the smoke of Shiloh.

We waited in the position assigned us, having one man, and perhaps a horse or two, wounded while in this ravine. The storm of battle kept creeping into the distance, the musket balls that had mostly flown above us now and then dropping spent of force. We dismounted to let our horses eat and munch the oaten luncheon we had captured earlier in the day, while we ourselves finished the cake of the Yankee commissary. Still we waited; no news nor orders. Finally an officer approached and had some talk with Captain Gaines. We noticed there was no hurry; the men were anxious, but no news was vouchsafed to us. Perhaps other orders came to the captain; I do not remember, but finally he mounted and started out towards the left of the line.

Then the rumor ran through the company that the general was dead. Some supposed we were going to General Beauregard. But we did not; halt after halt was made, and, as night followed, the volume of rifle fire ceased, and the terrible shells of the Federal gunboats increased. They were shelling their captured camps, for they well knew the hungry Confederates were swarming through the tents. It is now well understood that the halt by General Beauregard about sundown was fatal to our overwhelming their entire army. Bragg held the front and was ready to go under the bluff.

General Prentiss troops defended this part of Shiloh, called the Hornets' Nest, His troops repulsed the Confederate Charges against the Sunken Road

While the lines were waiting and wondering what it meant, Dr. T. J. Savage, now of Mobile, then an officer in one of the Alabama regiments, told me he crept forward to have a look. He said he could see masses of men huddled together and apparently without formation. In fact they were boarding the gunboats as fast as the capacity of the staging would allow. The gallant Prentiss with the larger part of his brigade had been captured some time in the evening; hundreds of other prisoners had been all day streaming to our rear; the quartermaster and other ordnance officers had been gathering in the captured spoil, and the surgeons were red and busy with their dreadful work.

At night, in our bivouac, we were not without plenty to appease the hunger of the day. Huge tins from the camp stores were procured and filled with coffee; and, as the fiery missiles of the gunboats cleft the air above us with their awful shrieks, we reveled in the fatness of the enemy's camp.

The morrow has a history of its own.

Additional Sources:

www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates
www.civilwarprints.com
www.pbs.org
www.cwbattlefields.com
www.angelfire.com/ca3/4thillinoiscavalry
www.prenticenet.com
www.galwest.com
www.archives.state.al.us
www.rugreview.com
www.cdaccess.com

During the morning of April 6, 1862, the thrust of the initial Confederate attack had pushed the Federal positions back toward Tennessee. Brigadier General Benjamin Prentiss, whose camp the Rebels had overrun early on, was forced back a mile to a strong position along a sunken road.

Prentiss's line, which included the greenest of the Union troops, was extended to his right by brigades of Brigadier General W.H.L. Wallace, and, to his left, by regiments of Brigadiet General Stephen Hurlbut's division. For several hours, the Federals standing or crouching behind the natural bank of the road, fought off almost a dozen determined Rebel attacks on their position which was dubbed by the Rebels "The Hornet's Nest" because of the intensity of fire stirred up every time an assault was mounted on it.

By the end of the fighting in this area, there were so many dead Rebel's in the field in front of the sunken road, it was said it was possible to walk across it stepping on bodies without touching the ground.

In the early afternoon of Arpil 6th, Prentiss's Federal's were entrenched in the sunken farm road, screened in front by dense thickets. There they fought off the last of four attacks made by Colonel Randel Gibson's brigade of Major General Braxton Bragg's division. The Confederates had to advance across an open field exposed to Union artillery. As they neared the thicket, rifle fire poured into their ranks.

At about 17:00 Prentiss finally was outflanked, he surrendered with 2,200 men. However, their brave stand had forestalled the Rebel advance and inflicted heavy casualties. In fact, the Union surrender served to break the momentum of the Rebel attack, the push in this sector was halted while the transfer of prisoners was organized. By the time the Rebels resumed their offensive, Grant had formed another defensive line, which held off the Rebels until nightfall.

The Confederate soldiers at the battle of Shiloh named the area along the Sunken Road the "Hornet's Nest" because of the heavy fire they had to face there. Gen. Daniel Ruggles witnessed eleven unsuccessful attacks and then gathered all the artillary he could find - 62 cannon in all - and opened fire on the Union line. With this aid, they were successful in capturing General Prentiss.

Fascinating Fact: The 62 cannon massed at the Hornets' Nest was the largest concentration of artillery yet to be assembled in an American war. The Battle of Shiloh was the largest battle fought on American soil up to that time.