" Battle of Shiloh.' 309
straggled to find food amid the profuse stores of the enemy, or shel- ter in the forest." {Rebellion Records, Volume X, Part I, pages 569. 570).
This paragraph is all literally true, but it does not give the whole of the truth of the situation, and, whether framed or not to that end, it has been used to give gravamen to the theory, that but for the order to withdraw out of action so complete a victory must have been gained, late as it was, or after sunset, as to have prevented any serious battle the next day. This preposterous supposition people are asked to accept, and Hardee is adduced in effect by Colonel William Preston Johnston as having been of that belief. Hardee, who virtually con- fesses that at sunset his men had been fighting twelve continuous hours without food, and that his own corps was so utterly out of his own hands, that he had to seek that night a sleeping place with Colo- nel Martin, of Breckinridge's reserve division.
Of his subordinates, who were in that quarter of the field where Hardee was personally present (the Confederate left), Brigadier- General Cleburne, as distinguished subsequently for soldierly ability as for personal intrepidity, reports that after having exhausted his ammunition and been obliged to replenish it after much delay, he again advanced and continued to move forward until checked by a heavy fire from the enemy's field artillery (Hurlbut's and McCler- nard's troops, as may be seen) and gunboats. When this firing ceased, he again advanced until halted by an aid from General Beaure- gard, who informed him that he was not to approach nearer the river. " It was now dark," says Cleburne, "so I returned and encamped near the Bark road. Every fifteen minutes the enemy threw two shells from his gunboats, some of which bursted close among my men." (Ibid, page 582). I may also add that from about two thousand seven hundred officers and men on the morning of the 6th of April, Cleburne found his brigade muster but eight hundred on the morning of the yth. (Ibid, page 582). Brigadier-General Wood, who commanded Hardee's third brigade, says that under orders from General Hardee to move to the centre and front, he took his troops under and beyond the shells of the gunboats, until, coming on a line of troops (Confederates) in his front, he halted and ordered the men to rest, selecting a position the most secure from the shelling. From the shells, however, at this point he lost ten killed and wounded. " In a short time I saw," says General Wood, " the line on my front moving to the rear around my right. A staff- officer then ordered me to fall back to the encampment we had last
