Private Henry Stanley's account of the first day at the Battle of Shiloh
6th Arkansas Infantry, Hindman’s Brigade
We trampled recklessly over the grass and young sprouts…Just then we came to a bit of parkland, and overtook our skirmishers Nothing stood between us and the enemy.
There they are!” was no sooner uttered than we cracked into them with leveled muskets. “Aim low, men!” commanded Captain Smith. I tried hard to see some living thing to shoot at, for it appeared absurd to be blazing away at shadows.
But, still advancing, firing as we moved, I, at last, saw a row of little globes of pearly smoke streaked with crimson…from a long line of bluey figures in front…
We heard the order to “Lie down, men, and continue your firing!” Before me was a prostate tree, about fifteen inches in diameter, with a narrow strip of light between it and the ground. Behind this shelter a dozen of us flung ourselves…
But it was a terrible period! How the cannon bellowed, and their shells plunged and bounded, and flew with screeching hisses over us! Their sharp rending explosions and hurling fragments made us shrink and cower, despite our utmost efforts to be cool and collected.
I marveled, as I heard the unintermitting patter, snip, thud, and hum of bullets, how anyone could live under this raining death.
Voices of the Civil War—Shiloh, by the Editors of Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA.
Henry Stanley had emigrated from Wales to the United States only three years before the war started. After the war he became famous as a journalist and African explorer, and for his search for Dr. David Livingston.
Civil War and Reconstruction >> Civil War >> Soldiers Life >> Before the Battle
Sponsored by: National Endowment for the Humanities