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Joseph Thompson's account of Shiloh

Confederate soldier Joseph Thompson wrote to his wife Mary about the battle.  He described the fighting on Monday, April 7, 1862.  Thompson wrote:

We fought over a space of about 10,000 acres and over this vast space the dead were strewn in all directions, as the dead of Sunday had not been  removed.  Some lay on their backs with their faces upturned to heaven  with eyes half closed and seemed to be in a half slumber; others were sitting beneath the trees with their heads fallen between their knees; others, who had been instantly killed, fell on their sides with their faces to the ground.  I noticed some poor fellows who had managed to crawl to a  little stream and there quench their thirst and die….
 
Of all the horrid sights, it is those who have been shot with cannon.  I shall never forget one poor fellow who lay on the ground dreadfully wounded.  As our column was pressing on to charge the enemy, I came upon him.  He implored, for God’s sake, for mercy.  But what could I do?  I dare not stop to care for one of our own wounded much less an enemy.

 

Joseph Dimmit Thompson to Mary Thompson, April 10, 1862, in “The Battle of Shiloh:  From the Letters and Diary of Joseph Dimmit Thompson,” edited by John G. Biel, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, vol. XVII, no. 3 (September 1958)