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levies will be made as light as possible, and be su distributed as to produce no distress among the people. All property so taken must be receipted fully and accepted for as heretofore directed."

The Shiloh Victory, as Described by an Eye-witness.

An eye-witness of this terrific battle, who wrote the first account which appeared in print, describes the thrilling scene, dated April 9, as follows:

One of the greatest and bloodiest battles of modern days has just closed, resulting in the complete rout of the enemy, who attacked us at daybreak Sunday morning.

The battle lasted, without intermission, during the entire day, and was again renewed on Monday morning, and continued undecided until four o'clock in the afternoon, when the enemy commenced their retreat, and are still flying towards Corinth, pursued by a large force of our cavalry.

The slaughter on both sides is immense. We have lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, from eighteen to twenty thousand; that of the enemy is estimated at from thirtyfive to forty thousand.

It is impossible, in the present confused state of affairs, to ascertain any of the details; I, therefore, give you the best account possible from observation, having passed through the storm of action during the two days that it raged.

The fight was brought on by a body of three hundred of the Twenty-fifth Missouri Regiment, of General Prentiss' Division, attacking the advance guard of the rebels, which were supposed to be the pickets of the enemy in front of our camps.

The rebels immediately advanced on General Prentiss'

Division on the left wing, pouring volley after volley of musketry, and riddling our camps with grape, canister, and shell. Our forces soon formed into line and returned their fire vigorously. By the time we were prepared to receive them, the rebels had turned their heaviest fire on the left center, Sherman's Division,. and drove our men back from their camps; then, bringing up a fresh force, opened fire on our left wing, under General McClernand. This fire was returned with terrible effect and determined spirit by both infantry and artillery, along the whole line, for a distance of over four miles.

General Hurlbut's division was thrown forward to support the center, when a desperate conflict ensued. The rebels were driven back with terrible slaughter, but soon rallied and drove back our men in turn. From about nine o'clock, the time your correspondent arrived on the field, until night closed on the bloody scene, there was no determination of the result of the struggle.

The rebels exhibited remarkably good generalship. At times engaging the left, with apparently their whole strength, they would suddenly open a terrible and destructive fire on the right or centre. Even our heaviest and most destructive fire upon the enemy did not appear to discourage their solid columns. The fire of Major Taylor's Chicago Artillery raked them down in scores, but the smoke would no sooner be dispersed than the breach would again be filled.

The most desperate fighting took place late in the afternoon. The rebels knew that, if they did not succeed in whipping us then, their chances for success would be extremely doubtful, as a portion of Gen. Buell's forces had by this time arrived on the opposite side of the river, and another portion was coming up the river from Savannah. They became aware that we were being re-enforced, as they

could see General Buell's troops from the river bank, a short distance above us on the left, to which point they had forced their way.

At five o'clock the rebels had forced our left wing back so as to occupy fully two thirds of our camp, and were fighting their way forward with a desperate degree of confidence in their efforts to drive us into the river, and at the same time heavily engaged our right.

Up to this time we had received no re-enforcements, General Lewis Wallace failing to come to our support until the day was over. Being without other transports than those used for quartermaster's and commissary stores, which were too heavily laden to ferry any considerable number of General Buell's forces across the river, and the boats that were here having been sent to bring up the troops from Savannah, we could not even get those men to us who were so near, and anxiously waiting to take part in the struggle. We were, therefore, contesting against fearful odds, our force not exceeding thirty-eight thousand men, while that of the enemy was upwards of sixty thousand.

Our condition at this moment was extremely critical. Large numbers of men panic struck, others worn out by hard fighting, with the average percentage of skulkers, had straggled towards the river, and could not be rallied.

General Grant and staff, who had been recklessly riding along the lines during the entire day, amid the unceasing storm of bullets, grape, and shell, now rode from right to left, inciting the men to stand firm until our re-enforcements could cross the river.

Colonel Webster, Chief of Staff, immediately got into position the heaviest pieces of artillery, pointing on the enemy's right, while a large number of the batteries were planted along the entire line, from the river bank northwest to our extreme right, some two and a half miles dis

tant. About an hour before dusk a general cannonading was opened upon the enemy, from along our whole line, with a perpetual crack of musketry. Such a roar of artillery was never heard on this continent. For a short time the rebels replied with vigor and effect, but their return shots grew less frequent and destructive, while ours grew more rapid and more terrible.

The gunboats Lexington and Tyler, which lay a short distance off, kept raining shell on the rebel hordes. This last effort was too much for the enemy, and ere dusk had set in the firing had nearly ceased, when, night coming on, all the combatants rested from their awful work of blood and carnage.

Our men rested on their arms in the position they had at the close of the night, until the forces under Major-General Lewis Wallace arrived and took position on the right, and General Buell's forces from the opposite side and Savannah, were being conveyed to the battle-ground. The entire right of General Nelson's division was ordered to form on the right, and the forces under General Crittenden were ordered to his support early in the morning.

General Buell, having himself arrived on Sunday evening, on the morning of Monday, April 7, the ball was opened at daylight, simultaneously by General Nelson's division on the left, and Major-General Wallace's division on the right. General Nelson's force opened up a most galling fire on the rebels, and advanced rapidly as they fell back. The fire soon became general along the whole line, and began to tell with terrible effect on the enemy. Generals McClernand, Sherman, and Hurlbut's men, though terribly jaded from the previous day's fighting, still maintained their honors won at Donelson; but the resistance of the rebels at all points of the attack was terrible, and worthy of a better cause.

But they were not enough for our undaunted bravery and the dreadful desolation produced by our artillery, which was sweeping them away like chaff before the wind. But knowing that a defeat here would be the death-blow to their hopes, and that their all depended on this great struggle, their generals still urged them on in the face of destruction, hoping by flanking us on the right to turn the tide of battle. Their success was again for a time cheering, as they began to gain ground on us, appearing to have been re-enforced; but our left, under General Nelson, was driving them, and with wonderful rapidity, and by eleven o'clock General Buell's forces had succeeded in flanking them and capturing their batteries of artillery.

They, however, again rallied on the left, and recrossed, and the right forced themselves forward in another desperate effort. But re-enforcements from General Wood and General Thomas were coming in, regiment after regiment, which were sent to General Buell, who had again commenced to drive the enemy.

About three o'clock in the afternoon, General Grant rode to the left where the fresh regiments had been ordered, and, finding the rebels wavering, sent a portion of his body guard to the head of each of five regiments, and then ordered a charge across the field, himself leading; and as he brandished his sword and waved them on to the crowning victory, the cannon balls were falling like hail around him.

The men followed with a shout that sounded above the roar and din of the artillery, and the rebels fled in dismay as from a destroying avalanche, and never made another stand.

General Buell followed the retreating rebels, driving them in splendid style, and by half-past five o'clock the whole rebel army was in full retreat to Corinth, with our cavalry

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