The Arkansas in the Civil War Message Board

Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
In Response To: Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh ()

As I recall, the figure of 364 casualties in the 1st Arkansas at Shiloh was cited in a local Jackson County history. That number is overstated. Bevens, in his Reminiscences, reported 270 killed, wounded and captured. By my count, based on the Compiled Service Records, the number was 281.

Here's the portion of Bevens' reminiscences that covers the battle itself --

We camped at Corinth, Mississippi, and the army was under General Beauregard until General Albert Sidney Johnston arrived. April 4th we marched to Shiloh, arriving there April 5th. The constant rains had made the roads so bad that we had to pull the cannon by hand as the horses mired in the mud. But by this time we were used to hardships, and nothing discouraged that superb commander, General Albert Sidney Johnston. Every soldier loved him and was ready to follow him to the death. At the battle of Shiloh we were placed in the Gibson Brigade, Bragg’s Division. On the night before the battle the Medical Department ordered six men from each company to report to headquarters for instructions. I was one of the six to report from our company. The Surgeon General ordered us to leave our guns in camp and follow behind the company and six paces, as an infirmary corps to take care of the wounded. We reported our instructions to Captain Shoup, telling him we would not leave our guns, as we intended to fight. After hard pleading Captain Shoup consented. We took our guns and also looked after the wounded.

At four o’clock in the morning we began the march on the enemy. Each man had forty cartridges, all moving accoutrements and three days’ rations. General Johnston was cheered as he rode by our command and I remember his words as well as if they had been today, “Shoot low boys; it takes two to carry one off the field.”

Before we started Captain Scales of the Camden Company, begged his negro servant to stay in camp at Corinth, but the old negro would not leave his master. When we were in line of battle the captain again begged the negro to return to camp, but he refused to go. Just after the last appeal the fight began. A cannon ball whizzed through the air and exploded, tearing limbs from trees, wounded the soldiers. One man fell dead in front of the old negro. Then there was a yell, and old Sam shouted, “Golly, Marster, I can’t stand this,” and set out in a run for Corinth.

We moved forward with shot and shell, sweeping everything before us. We drove the officers from their hot coffee and out of their tents, capturing their camp and tents. Captain Shoup and John Loftin and Clay Lowe each got a sword. In the quartermaster’s tent we found thousands of dollars in crisp, new bills, for they had been paying off the Yankee soldiers.

Thad Kinman of the 7th Arkansas, who was under Ellenburg, quartermaster department, had loaded a chest into a wagon when he was ordered to “throw that stuff away.” He told us afterwards, “That was one time that I was sick,” but Ellenburg would not let him keep it.

Our command moved steadily forward for a mile or more. The Yankees had time to halt the fleeing ones, form a line of infantry and make a stand in an old road in a thicket. We were to the left of the thicket, fighting all the time in this part of the field. I saw Jim Stimson fall, and being on the Infirmary Corps, I went to him. I cut his knapsack loose and placed it under his head, tied my handkerchief about his neck, and then saw that he was dead. I took up my gun again, when in front I saw a line of Yankees two thousand strong, marching on the flank. I could see the buttons on their coats. I thought I would get revenge for my dead comrade, so I leveled beside a tree, took good aim at a Yankee, and fired. About that time the Yankees fronted and fired. Hail was nothing to that rain of lead. I looked around and found only four of our company. One was dead, two were wounded and I was as good as dead I thought, for I had no idea I could ever get away. To be shot in the back was no soldier’s way, so I stepped backward at a lively pace until I got over the ridge and out of range, assisting the wounded boys at the same time. I had not head the command to oblique to the right and close up a gap, and that was how we four happened to be alone in the wood. But I did some running then, found my regiment at the right of the thicket and fell into rank. When I got there the company was in a little confusion through not understanding a command, whether they were to move forward or oblique to the right. Captain Shoup thought his men were wavering, so he stepped in front of the company, unsheathed his new sword and told the boys to follow him. He had scarcely finished with the words when a bullet struck his sword and went through wood and steel. The boys were red-headed. They told him he did not have to lead them. They were ready to go anywhere. So we went forward into the hottest of the battle where the roar of musketry was incessant, and the cannonading fairly shook the ground. Men fell around us as leaves from the trees. Our regiment lost two hundred and seventy, killed, wounded and captured. The battle raged all day and when night came the enemy had been pushed back to the verge of the Tennessee river. But our victory had been won at great price, in the loss of our beloved General, Albert Sidney Johnston, who was killed early in the action.

General Beauregard, next in command, succeeded Johnston, and the battle opened again at daylight the next morning. During the night the enemy had been strongly re-inforced, and our men were steadily pressed back.

John Cathey, John R. Loftin, Waddill and I were among the wounded. We were sent to the field hospital several miles back in the wood. When the Surgeon General went to work on me he gave me a glass of whiskey, saying it would help me bear the pain. I told him I would not drink it. He then handed me a dose of morphine. I refused that. He looked me squarely in the face, saying, “Are you a damned fool?”

Our men, fighting stubbornly all the while, were pushed back by superior force through and beyond the Yankee camps we had captured so easily the day before, and at last retreated to Corinth, amidst a terrible storm of rain and sleet. We had lost about ten thousand men. That was the beginning of our real soldiering and the greatest battle we had been in.

Messages In This Thread

1st Arkansas at Shiloh
Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
Re: 1st Arkansas at Shiloh
John Baker Thompson
Re: John Baker Thompson