"It was upon the troops of Illinois and those immediately associated with them in the first day's battle, that the enemy dealt his heaviest blows and received in turn a stroke which rendered his subsequent defeat comparatively easy, both sustaining a loss hitherto without parallel in the history of the war. Though our divisions were driven back as the result of surprise and superior numbers, the advance of the enemy was finally checked, and when the gallant cohorts of Buell came to their rescue, were preparing for offensive operations, and largely shared in the magnificent cha. ges which subsequently bore our blood-stained banners triumphant over the field."

In that Sunday's fighting my regiment bore its full share. I was afterward informed by my Captain that after I was wounded and removed from the field, the regiment fell back to support the artillery, and that some of our soldiers served the guns after the regular gunners had been picked off by the Rebel sharpshooters. The battle raged thus until sunset, our embattled troops late in the afternoon making a final and a determined stand near the Landing, where they were reinforced by General Nelson, who arrived with a division of Buell's army, which took a position on the right of my regiment. In the next day's battle the 40th fought with Buell's forces.

I have always believed that if our lines at Shiloh had not been extended so far, and had breastworks been thrown up for our defense, we could easily

have repelled Johnston's army. However, at that time, it was not considered good military form to contract lines or erect temporary barricades. Grant said, "I spoke to my military engineer and he thought it was not necessary," and further, "The discipline the soldiers got in that battle was worth more to them than breastworks would have been." But I noticed that he took counsel of his experience and he was never afterward caught in a similar predicament. It is reckoned that one man behind a fairly well constructed defense is equal to five men assaulting it, and this theory certainly has been demonstrated in the present war in Europe.

CHAPTER XIX

INVALIDED

When I was rendered hors de combat on the field at Shiloh, Lieutenant Emery made good on our mutual pledge of the previous night and accompanied me to the Landing, to which I was carried by him and some other comrades. Arrived there, we found the surgeons so overwhelmed with work that I had to wait until night for my turn on the operating table.

While lying thus helpless at the Landing, I saw one of the funniest incidents of my career. A Union cavalry trooper appeared riding at full speed from the direction in which the battle was then raging, and running his horse to a point of land at a considerable elevation above the river spurred him on and made him jump off into the swiftly running stream. The horse and rider went down until the head of the rider was just out of the water. As the horse rose and began to swim across the river, it evidently occurred to him that the bank he had just left was nearer, so he turned around and started back to shore. Those acquainted with the habits of a horse will know that in turning in the water his back is almost per

pendicular. While in that position the rider slipped off and would have been carried down the stream had he not caught the horse by the tail and been thus towed to land. When back on firm ground, the cavalryman mounted the horse, put spur to him and rode back like mad in the direction of the battle. I have often thought how much that rider owed to that horse for saving him from the charge of desertion and perhaps making of him a gallant soldier.

I related that story on a number of occasions after that, and each time my hearers would look askance at each other as if to say, "That's a big one"; so my readers will appreciate the satisfaction I gained in later years in securing corroborative testimony. Dr. Horace Wardner, one of the brigade surgeons operating at the Landing that Sunday afternoon, was reading a paper about fifteen years later at a meeting of the Loyal Legion in Chicago, which I attended. The title of his paper was "Experiences of an Army Surgeon," and in it he related the incident just as it is here set down.

At dusk I was taken aboard a hospital boat, when the surgeons put the finishing touches upon the rather rough amputation the shell had done. During the night the wounded on that boat were taken to Savannah and placed in a brick church there which had been hastily converted into a hospital. I fared a bit better than most of my wounded com

rades in that I had a cot. The surgeon in charge objected to me keeping the cot, but as I was accompanied by Samuel Martin, a comrade from my Company, and as we were both well armed, I kept the cot and was taken on it to a place near the pulpit. On one side of me was a captain of an Iowa regiment with one arm amputated above the elbow, and on the other side a lieutenant of an Ohio battery with his lower leg amputated.

In about a week, Dr. McCook, of Pittsburg, walked into the church one morning and asked if there were any men among the wounded there from Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky or West Virginia, as he had hospital boats in waiting at the landing to take them home. The Lieutenant from Ohio, lying next to me, spoke up saying that he wanted to go to Cincinnati, and when Dr. McCook came over to talk with him, I took advantage of the occasion to inform the Doctor that I lived in southern Illinois, and would like to be taken as far as Paducah, which was on their way. The Iowa captain said that he, too, would like to go with them as far as Paducah. Dr. McCook explained to us that he could not take us unless we got permission from the surgeon in charge. The surgeon very readily gave his consent, and appeared to be glad to get rid of us.

The hospital boat was Heaven as compared to what we had recently gone through, it being provided with splendid surgeons and nurses, good