For more information or to register for our upcoming Shiloh tour (April) contact us.
#14 - Bloody Pond
For more information
or to register for our upcoming Shiloh tour (April) contact
us.
#14 - Bloody
Pond
Return to the Table of Contents
Quotes from Actual Battlefield Participants
| “It
was now evident that the tide of battle was going against us. . . . Our
infantry support was all broken up into squads and were fighting desperately,
while we were firing solid shots and a few shells, having exhausted our
cannister. But with a solid line opposed to us, we could not, in the nature
of things, resist much longer, and a little after 4 o’clock the enemy
had succeeded in turning out left, and on they came from front and left
flank, in solid line to scoop us in. The Lieut. Wood’s voice rang out
clear and strong, “‘Limber to the rear. Get your guns out of this.’”
Charles Kimbell, Battery A, First Illinois Light Artillery |
Early in the battle a Union field hospital was located near the shores of this small pond. Wounded men also headed for this spot because it represented an obvious source of water both for bathing wounds and also for trying to quench the raging thirst they created. As happened on a number of Civil War battlefields in similar situations, the blood of the wounded men who throng its edges tinted the waters of Bloody Pond.
After Pugh’s men fell back from the Peach Orchard, 500 yards to the south (Stop 13), they took up a position just north of the pond, trying to fend off Confederates advancing from the south. After a brief time the Federals were forced to fall back again.
 |
 |
 |
Fighting near here, Charles Kimbell of Battery A, First Illinois Light Artillery experienced with his comrades the intense pressure of the Confederate attack. “It was now evident,” Kimbell later wrote, “that the tide of battle was going against us. . . . Our infantry support was all broken up into squads and were fighting desperately, while we were firing solid shots and a few shells, having exhausted our cannister. But with a solid line opposed to us, we could not, in the nature of things, resist much longer, and a little after 4 o’clock the enemy had succeeded in turning out left, and on they came from front and left flank, in solid line to scoop us in. The Lieut. Wood’s voice rang out clear and strong, “Limber to the rear. Get your guns out of this."
Return to the Table of Contents
Go to the next stop - Hornets' Nest
Previous Stop - Peach Orchard
Copyright © 2003, The
Center for the Study of the American Civil War. All rights reserved. Contact Us.
