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#8
- Shiloh Church
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)
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Shiloh Church - stop #7 on the NPS Map (left)
Click on the map to enlarge it.
Quotes from Actual Battlefield Participants
| “My
right-hand man, John McInerny, received a ball just over his right eye.
The blood spurted out profusely.” -- Pvt. Robert H. Flemming, 77th Ohio |
| “The
Confederates seemed to have a good range on the battery for all of the horses
were soon killed and we were driven back. I with eight or ten of the boys
pulled a cannon off the field, but the rebels came on so fast that we had
to leave the gun and look out for ourselves.” -- Pvt. George O. Smith, 17th Illinois |
| “From
out of the edge of this great opening, came regiment after regiment and
brigade after brigade of the Confederate troops. The sun was just rising
in their front, and the glittering of their arms and equipments made a gorgeous
spectacle for me.” -- John A. Cockerill, 70th Ohio |
The
modern brick building belongs to Shiloh United
Methodist Church, an active congregation. The nearby log structure is an
accurate reconstruction of 
the wartime Shiloh Methodist Church building, on
roughly the same site. Sherman had his headquarters here, in a nearby
tent. A few yards away was the headquarters tent of Col. Jesse Hildebrand's
brigade of Sherman's division. Two of Hildebrand's three regiments formed a
line starting just on the south side of the church, slanting downhill, and facing
southeast. Beyond them was the ravine of the east fork of Shiloh Branch,
and beyond that was Rea Field and Hildebrand's third regiment, the hapless
53rd Ohio. Another of Sherman's brigades, commanded by Col. Ralph
P. Buckland, had its left flank just across the road from Shiloh Church,
and its line curved westward so as to face due south. Sherman's two batteries
of artillery took position near the church, Capt. Samuel E. Barrett's Battery
B, and Capt. Allen C. Waterhouse's Battery E, both
belonging to the 1st Illinois Light Artillery Regiment.
The view from here at about 8:00 A.M., April 6, 1862, was awe-inspiring. Through the thinner and less extensive forests of that time watchers here could see the camp and battle line of the 53rd Ohio and the entire majestic sweep of the Confederate battle lines sweeping forward from the middle of Rea field, hundreds of yards away on the viewer's left front, all the way around to the woods northwest of Shiloh Church, on the viewer's right front. Despite the already disconnected nature of the Confederate attack, it still looked very impressive to those on the receiving end.
 THE OLD SHILOH LOG CHURCH AT THE TIME OF THE BATTLE. A sketch made at the time of A. E. Matthews, 31st Ohio. |
Again and again the Confederates assaulted Sherman's line, taking heavy casualties in the attempt. Sherman energetically and skillfully directed the defense and had two horses shot out from under him, one after the other, near here. For well over an hour,
Sherman's men held firm. Ultimately what doomed the position was the debacle in Rea Field. Even if Col. Appler had not panicked, the 53rd would eventually have had to flee Rea Field both because of overwhelming Confederate numbers and because of the half-mile gap between Rea Field and Prentiss's position (or what was once Prentiss's position). Had the 53rd held its position longer, the Confederates could have swept down on its left flank like an avalanche. With the 53rd gone, it was only a matter of time until that same avalanche struck the rest of Sherman's regiments, one by one, from left to right. The 57th Ohio's turn came next, and after it crumbled, the 77th's, with its right flank here at Shiloh Church. As the Rebels pressed on the other end of the regimental line, the men of the 77th turned and fired to their left as best they could, but soon they had to join the retreat. With Hildebrand's infantry on the run, the artillery had to go too, but so many horses had been shot that infantrymen had to join the cannoneers in hauling at least one gun away by hand. The charging Confederates captured several of the guns.
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