[597] twice caused other Confederates to fire upon them, with serious effect; and the commander complained that one of Beauregard's staff, acting in Hardee's name, put the brigade into action in such a way as to subject it to a raking fire and unnecessary loss. Doubtless, however, it contributed its full share to the general result. Sherman, beaten and driven, had to go back again, with McDowell's and Veatch's brigades crushed to pieces, and to be heard of no more in the battle. But Sherman did not finally give way until General Johnston's movement had crushed in and routed the whole front line on the Federal left and was pressing back Hurlbut and Stuart. While these furious combats, succeeding each other like well-delivered blows from the iron flail of war, were raging along the whole line, General Johnston was carrying forward the movement by which his entire right wing was swung around on the centre, Hindman's brigade, as a pivot, so that every command of the Federals was taken successively, in front and flank, and a crumbling process ensued by which the whole line went to pieces. At last, pressed back toward both Owl Creek and the River, these broken commands found safety by the interposition on their left flank of W. H. L. Wallace's fresh division, ready to meet the thronging battalions of the South. Colonel Drake, who was in the pursuit over this hotly-contested field with one of Cleburne's Tennessee Regiments, says:
The enemy's dead began to appear in considerable numbers on the parade-ground, in rear of General Sherman's headquarters, called by him “Shiloh Chapel.” . . . From this point on, the enemy's dead lay thick, and numbers seem to have fallen in retreat.He picked up General Sherman's order-book, which he afterward deposited with General Cleburne. He says it contained no intimation of the Confederate approach. General Preston gives the following account of the movements on the Confederate right:
General Hardee reported his men still advancing at this camp about nine o'clock, and conferred with General Johnston, who was reconnoitring a second line of camps near the river, where the enemy were posted in force. They then commenced shelling the first camp, apparently attracted by the presence of the staff and escort, the distance being, I should think, six or eight hundred yards, and shells from the gunboats of large size were thrown. General Johnston received a report and rough draft at this time from Captain Lockett, stating that the enemy were strongly posted on the left in front of our right. Heavy musketry-firing and cannonades indicated that Bragg and Hardee were successfully advancing on our left. General Johnston rode down the hill to escape the shells, and his escort back toward the woods. This was about half-past 9. After pondering a little while, he determined to bring forward Breckinridge's reserve, and, feeling his way to the river, to turn the enemy's left.
