For more information on the upcoming Shiloh Tour or to register contact us.
#4 - Peabody's Camps
For more
information on the upcoming Shiloh Tour or to register contact
us.
#4
- Peabody's Camps
Return to the Table of Contents
Peabody's Camps - stop #10 on the NPS Map (left)
Click on the map to enlarge it.
Picture or portrait of soldier |
Official Report of a Commander | Brigadier General Stephen A. Hurlbut (Hyperlink of a commander's name links to their name on the Official Order of Battle)
Quotes from Actual Battlefield Participants
"We drove
the officers from their hot coffee and out of their tents, capturing their
camp and tents. Captain Shoup and John Loftin and Clay Lowe each got a
sword. In the quartermaster’s tent we found thousands of dollars in crisp,
new bills, for they had been paying off the Yankee soldiers.” |
||
By
the time it reached its camps, Peabody’s
brigade was nearing the point of disintegration. The colonel, who had 
already
been wounded four times, galloped this way and that, waving his sword and trying
to get his men to rally. “The 25th
Missouri is disgraced,” he shouted, as the regiment, which he had commanded
before rising to brigade command, continued to fall back. Then he toppled to
the ground with a bullet through the head. Many of his troops kept on making
fairly unorganized efforts to defend the camp, dodging between tents and wagons
and squeezing off shots when they could, but within minutes the Confederates
had overrun all four of the brigade’s regimental camps. The time was 8:30.
Now began a phenomenon,
repeated throughout the day, by which the Confederates’ own success worked against
them, disorganizing their army and slowing its advance: hundreds of Southern
soldiers dispersed in each of the captured camps, rifling through tents and
knapsacks and reveling in their new-found booty. “We drove the officers from
their hot coffee and out of their tents, capturing their camp and tents,” crowed
Pvt. William E. Bevens 
of the 1st
Arkansas,
and continued with a report on his friends’ winnings: “Captain Shoup
and John Loftin and Clay Lowe each got a sword. In the quartermaster’s
tent we found thousands of dollars in crisp, new bills, for they had been paying
off the Yankee soldiers.” Elsewhere on the battlefield, in the dozens of Union
camps overrun that day, eager Rebels found more varied plunder. In the camp
of the 43rd Illinois
they found Col. Adolph Engelman’s larder and ate up “several jars of
anchovies, about eight pounds of the best swiss cheese, [and] four pounds of
chocolate.” The German-American colonel later wondered why they left his barrel
of sauerkraut alone. The Rebels also took the instruments of the 43rd’s band.
Throughout the captured camps many Confederates sat reading love letters from
the Yankee soldiers’ sweethearts back in the North.
Johnston was appalled
at this process that was sapping his army’s combat strength and wasting precious
time. It was hard enough trying to stop the enlisted men from ransacking the
camps, and then Johnston saw a junior officer engaged in the same activity.
“None of that, sir,” Johnston thundered, “We are not here for plunder.” The
young officer, who had apparently not realized he was neglecting his duty, looked
crushed. Softening, Johnston picked up a Yankee tin cup. “Let this be my share
of the spoils today,” and rode off, carrying the cup in his right hand instead
of a sword.
Return
to the Table of Contents
Go
to the next stop - Spain's
Field
Previous Stop - Prentiss's
First Defensive Line
Copyright © 2003, The Center for the Study of the American Civil War. All rights reserved. Contact Us.
