On 6 April 1862, Confederate forces surprised and almost destroyed Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s Union Army of the Tennessee at Shiloh, Tennessee. The Army survived wholly because of the presence of two gunboats, a fact openly acknowledged by Grant, President Abraham Lincoln, and the Confederate general who assumed command of the Army of Mississippi at Shiloh, General P. G. T. Beauregard.
The story of the April battle of Shiloh is well known, but a smaller first battle of Shiloh occurred five weeks earlier in which the same Navy gunboats cleared the way for the Army of the Tennessee’s arrival. This was accomplished in the face of much greater odds than those faced by Grant.
The Memphis & Charleston Railroad crossed Bear Creek at Iuka, Mississippi, with an 80- foot-long bridge. Destroying the bridge would have been almost as good as capturing Corinth, Mississippi, itself, where the Memphis &. Charleston intersected the Mobile &. Ohio Railroad in the “Crossroads of the Confederacy.” Only 14 miles from Iuka, the town of Eastport, Mississippi, was the obvious spot to land troops bent on destroying the Bear Creek span.
In mid-February 1862, Lieutenant William Gwin landed the Tyler at Hamburg, Tennessee (south of Pittsburg Landing), informing residents that transports would land troops the following day. This was a deception, as Gwin’s orders were to attempt the destruction of the bridge at Bear Creek. Ascending to Eastport the next day, excited locals informed Gwin that the bridge was guarded by 3,000-4,000 Confederates. Having only 50 sharpshooters on board, Gwin decided a greater force would be needed and so dropped back downstream to Cairo, Illinois. Gwin himself had fallen prey to misinformation: although still heavily guarded, only 1,500 men garrisoned the bridge.
Gwin set out to make a second attempt at the bridge in late February. This time he was accompanied by the Lexington under Lieutenant James W. Shirk. Between them, the timberclads mounted ten 8-inch guns and three 32- pounders. The Tyler carried a complement of 67 men; the Lexington probably had a similar number on board. The ships carried “portions” of Company C (Captain Thaddeus Phillips) and Company K (First Lieutenant John J. Rider) of the 32d Regiment of Illinois Volunteers (sharpshooters). On the last day of February they dropped anchor to spend the night off Savannah, Tennessee, nine miles north of Pittsburg Landing.
Almost simultaneously, the 18th Louisiana Infantry Regiment (commanded by Colonel Alfred Mouton) departed Corinth, Mississippi. Striking half their tents and leaving their Company K to guard the remainder, they arrived at Pittsburg on 28 February. Mouton was under orders to monitor river activity at the landing, which was the northern terminus of the road to Corinth. To do this, he had nine companies of the 18th (about 1,000 men) as well as the Miles Light Artillery and a 500-rider detachment of the 2d Mississippi Cavalry.
Pittsburg Landing was the principal river shipping point for the 15th Civil District of Hardin County. The family of Pittser (“Pitt”) Tucker originally settled the landing in 1848. Tucker established a frontier trading post that dealt mostly in hard liquor. When other families settled nearby, “Pitt’s Landing” became “Pittsburg Landing.” The number and placement of buildings that made up Pittsburg in 1862 is unclear. The Louisianans described it as “three log cabins and a pigsty.” Historian Larry Daniel places the “three log cabins” along the road: one near the edge of the bluff to the north, a second about 100 yards to the west across a ravine, and the third 200 yards south of the road.1 Confederate Major Silas Grisamore’s diary specifies “but two buildings, one on the bank of the river, and the other about 200 yards back.” This eyewitness was stationed in the ravine between these buildings and may never have seen the house at the foot of the landing nor the one to the south. There was “a cultivated field, two hundred yards wide and a half- mile long, [running] along the back of the bluff; behind was a heavily wooded area.”
Two companies of the 18th Louisiana were in the ravine between the northernmost houses, while the remaining seven companies camped in the woods behind the open field; neither camp could be seen from the river. Pickets were set that evening near the mouth of Owl Creek a mile and a half downstream (to the north). On the morning of 1 March, the Miles Light Artillery arrived. The battery was under the command of Captain Claude Gibson (so it also was known as Gibson’s Battery). The captain posted two 12-pound howitzers under Second Lieutenant Charles A. Montaldo along the river about 100 yards downstream from the landing, and four 6-pound rifled guns under Junior First Lieutenant E. D. Terrebonne 300 yards farther upstream on “a high and conspicuous bluff.”
Departing Savannah, Tennessee, at 0900 on 1 March, the Tyler led the Lexington upstream. Just before noon, the Confederate pickets at Owl Creek spotted the smoke from the two vessels’ stacks above the trees along the river and spread the word that “gunboats were coming.” At noon the ships rounded Diamond Island and steamed into view of Pittsburg Landing. Gwin and Shirk may have suspected a Confederate presence, based on information from local loyalists.2 Atop the southern bluff, Terrebonne opened fire with his rifled cannon at 1,200 yards, making “a few shots which were doubtless well-aimed, but which fell short of their mark some 200 or 300 yards.” The Tyler and Lexington cleared for action and returned fire at 1,000 yards. As the battle opened, Mouton rushed to the scene and pushed a single company forward over the brow of the hill, ordering them into “a rifle pit that was being made on the bank of the river in front of our camp.” Unfortunately, this fieldwork was incomplete and offered scant protection from the fire of the gunboats. Being in full view of the Navy gunners and at such a range that their musket fire was ineffective, the company was withdrawn, “not however until two or three shots passed so close to us that we could feel the wind raising the hair on our heads.”
The opposing guns exchanged fire for almost 40 minutes before the Confederate gunners were “compelled to travel,” their retreat caused in part by the fact that some of their guns were not returning fire. Montaldo on the northern bluff “withdrew his howitzers without firing.” At his court- martial two months later, the lieutenant testified he “did not have enough men or the proper implements to work his guns.’” Grisamore reported that “a few well-directed shots from the boats caused the [main] battery to fall back, whilst the two howitzers, from not being properly prepared, were not fired at all, and all fell back into the woods.” From the other side of the battle, Gwin reported, “we had the satisfaction of silencing their batteries” as a result of “exceedingly well-directed fire.” That the Union ships eventually moved closer to shore and switched to grapeshot probably also influenced the defenders’ decision. Grisamore commented that enemy gunfire struck and burned a log cabin (Federal records describe this as a “fortified house”). From the river, the two-gun battery, the half-finished entrenchments, and the infantry company that rushed to fill them certainly suggested a fortified position.
Realizing the importance of the location, Gwin and Shirk determined to land and ascertain the full strength and purpose of the Rebel works and to destroy them. In preparation, the Navy guns pounded the shore and surrounding woods for an hour with grape and canister shot.4 “Having never seen but our company and the battery,” Grisamore recalled, “it is presumed that they imagined the force on land to be small and to have retreated.” Unbeknownst to the Union officers, Mouton had formed his eight other companies in the safety of the ravine behind the bluffs.
Having maintained their positions downstream from Pittsburg Landing while shelling the enemy batteries, the gunboats now “proceeded abreast of the place” and landed two armed boats from each vessel, all the while covering the bluffs with fire. Second Master Jason Goudy commanded the boats from the Tyler (with Rider’s Company K) and was in charge of the whole landing party; Second Master Martin Dunn led the boats of the Lexington (with Phillips’ Company C). Under cover of the ships’ fire, the landing of these hundred sailors and soldiers evidently was uncontested.
Goudy led the naval demolition party to the “fortified house” on the river face of the northern hill. Phillips took the men of the 32d Illinois toward the top of the hill to screen the sailors and get a better idea of the scope of the fortifications.5 As they crested the bluff, the fire of the entire 18th Louisiana met them. Grisamore’s diary described the reaction of the Yankees to the Confederate ambush as a “precipitous rush” back to their boats, with the Louisianans in close pursuit. This might not be entirely accurate. Gwin’s report claims the “small force actually drove back the rebels and held them in check until [the boats’ crews] accomplished their difficult object.” This is echoed by another eyewitness in the 32d Illinois, Fenwick Hedley, who claims the men took cover inside the log cabin. Being outnumbered ten to one, it is doubtful whether the landing force could have held the 18th Louisiana for long. What forced the Confederates to pause was renewed fire from the gunboats.
The Louisianans began taking casualties as they reached the top of the hill. “As we rose the brow of the bluff,” one eyewitness remembered, “Corporal Huggins C. Ensign, of the Orleans Cadets, fell, torn and mutilated by a shell, his left arm broken and left side torn out.” First Lieutenant John T. Lavery was shot through the thigh, but continued to fight, “having borrowed a Maynard rifle, he leaned against a sapling, and blazed away as hard as he could,” and First Lieutenant Andrew J. Watt of Captain Huntington’s company “was struck with an iron ring of a grape stand, which had glanced from a tree, bruising his leg very severely, but did not prevent him from following up the fight.”6 The Confederates tried to shield themselves from the Navy guns, firing from the top of the steep banks and stepping back out of their sight (i.e., over the edge of the hill) while reloading.7
Seeing elements of the 2d Mississippi Cavalry working their way along the river bank to cut them off from their boats, the Union troops retreated.8 If there was a “precipitous rush,” it likely occurred at this time, the Union men “receiving in their retreat a most terrific fire of musketry.” Seaman James Sullivan of the Lexington fell dead, shot through the chest; Corporal John Hines and Orderly Sergeant Daniel Messick of the 32d Illinois were killed; and Captain Phillips was wounded. Two Lexington sailors and one from the Tyler later were listed as missing in action and were probably captured at this time. Reaching their boats, the soldiers and sailors faced the ordeal of rowing out to the gunboats. As the ships could not get closer to the shore than 50 yards, it was a long pull and “they became good marks for our men.”9 The crews of the timber- clads poured fire on the advancing Rebels. Gwin praised the crews as having “behaved with the greatest spirit and enthusiasm.” On board the Tyler, First Master Edward Shaw and Third Master James Martin were singled out for their efficient working of the batteries.10 Gwin cited Second Master Goudy for special bravery ashore “under such heavy fire.”
The 18th Louisiana pressed on, firing several more volleys at the boats and at the timberclads. Grisamore boasted that “the gunboats were wooden affairs, and our riflemen silenced their pieces easily. Had the battery been present we could have sunk them or compelled a surrender.” This last claim was not an idle boast, since the musket fire alone had riddled the ships, but the Navy guns were far from silenced. Shirk reported at this time seeing “a shell from this vessel . . . take effect upon a field officer, emptying his saddle and dropping three foot soldiers.”
Having repelled the enemy landing, the Louisianans retired over the hill. The gunboats fired a few more rounds and, receiving no answer, disengaged. A plaque in the National Cemetery says they continued upstream to Florence, Mississippi, but Gwin’s after-action report of 1 March is datelined “Savannah, Tennessee.” Silas Grisamore confirms this by recording that “they floated off down the river and did not use their engines until the current had carried them a mile or more below the scene of action.” The battle had lasted three hours.
The number of killed or wounded on both sides was surprisingly low. Mouton recorded 21 casualties on the Confederate side, which accords with the Southern newspaper accounts listing 7 men killed and 13 wounded.11 (Gwin’s estimate of enemy losses was 20 killed and 100 wounded, and Hedley records 17 graves on a later reconnaissance.) Union reports state that the landing came at a cost of two killed, three missing, and six wounded; Southerners claimed to have found three dead and captured four. (Grisamore estimated the Yankee losses as 12 killed and 60-odd wounded and missing.) Both sides rightfully claimed victory. Gwin wrote, “I have to state that the result was entirely satisfactory. Their batteries were silenced in a short time; the landing was effected; the house destroyed; and we discovered from their breastworks that they were preparing to fortify strongly this point.” Mouton and the 18th Louisiana received a congratulatory order from Brigadier General Daniel Ruggles at the behest of General Beauregard, thanking them for “their brilliant success on their first encounter with the enemy at Pittsburg, Tennessee.” Nonetheless, Colonel Mouton that evening withdrew his regiment inland, keeping only a light picket in observation at the landing, and moved it about three miles to a log Methodist church called Shiloh.
1. Larry J. Daniel, Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War (New York: Touchstone, 1998), pp. 68-70.
2. F. Y. Hedley, Marching through Georgia (Chicago: Donohue, Henneberry & Co., 1890), pp. 34-41.
3. General Beauregard commented that “the evidence in the case shows a degree of culpability and neglect of duty on part of Captain Gibson which should have caused him to exercise more forbearance toward Lieut. Montaldo.” Montaldo was exonerated.
4. Some of this expended ordnance was discovered during excavations in the park, causing confusion as to why Union naval shells were being found in what was known to be the Federal line during the April battle.
5. A plaque in the National Cemetery at Shiloh states that the Union forces reached a point some 200 yards inland from the “fortified” house “near to where the cemetery lodge now stands.” While the Union troops may well have been heading toward this second house, the claim that they reached it is contradicted by Grisamore’s eyewitness testimony that they retreated from the crest of the bluff.
6. New Orleans Daily Picayune, 11 March 1862.
7. Arthur W. Bergeron Jr., The Civil War Reminiscences of Major Silas T. Grisamore, C.S.A. (Baton Rouge, LA: LSU Press, 1993), pp. 19-22.
8. Hedley, Marching through Georgia, pp. 34-41.
9. Bergeron, The Civil War Reminiscences of Major Silas T. Grisamore, C.S.A., pp. 19-22.
10. All told, the Tyler expended 95 shell, 30 stand of grape, 10 of canister, and 67 rounds of shrapnel; the Lexington fired 45 8-inch shells, 25 6-inch shells, and 16 stand of grape.
11. New Orleans Daily Picayune, 9 and 11 March 1862.