Judge Williams Remembers Shiloh

In 1895, Judge Henry H. Williams, formerly a corporal in Co. A of the 71st Ohio Infantry, penned this memoir of his experiences at the Battle of Shiloh. It is clear that Judge Williams took issue with the postwar claims made by Generals Grant, Sherman, and their advocates downplaying the element of surprise at Shiloh: from his view in the ranks, quite the contrary. 

    "I had unusual privilege for a subaltern officer and was over much of the ground occupied by the Federal army just prior to the bloody battle of Shiloh," he noted. "No fortifications of any kind were in existence and up to Friday, April 4, 1862, no appearance of the enemy had been observed and only the ordinary picket line was maintained by the Federal forces. General Grant’s headquarters were at Savannah, nine miles down the Tennessee River and on the opposite bank. If at that time there was any apprehension of an attack from the Rebel forces, it was not manifest by any preparation to meet it. The real truth is that General Grant intended and expected to fight the Rebel forces in front of Corinth. All that may be said to the contrary will never convince the common soldier that the battle of Shiloh was not a surprise to the Federal troops." 

    Judge Williams' memoir first saw publication in the February 14, 1895, edition of The Buckeye published in Troy, Ohio. 

The National Association of Shiloh Survivors was a veterans' organization formed in 1905. Judge Williams certainly was entitled to membership as he was both severely wounded and captured during the course of the engagement. The medical effects of the wound he received in the hip at Shiloh eventually left him crippled but didn't stop the intrepid Ohioan from developing a thriving law practice and traveling around the world in 1899. 

    I was one of Lincoln’s first soldiers, having enlisted on April 15, 1861, to put down the Rebellion in 90 days. After participating in the first battle of the war at Philippi, Virginia on June 3, 1861, and tramping over the mountains of western Virginia for three months, my regiment [15^th O.V.M.] was discharged by reason of expiration of term of service and I came home fully satisfied with the toil and turmoil of a soldier’s life.

          The call for 300,000 more men, however, found me ready again for service under the old flag and in February 1862, my regiment (71^st Ohio) with many others joined Grant’s command for the advance up the Tennessee River. We landed at Pittsburg Landing early in March and were moved well to the front, forming with two other regiments and a battery the extreme left of our army. For some reason that never has been explained, the Second Brigade of Sherman’s Division to which we were attached was separated from the remainder of the command by nearly a mile and between us was the division of General Benjamin Prentiss.  

          For reasons not necessary to give, I had unusual privilege for a subaltern officer and was over much of the ground occupied by the Federal army just prior to the bloody battle of Shiloh. Pittsburg Landing is a steep bluff with a considerable opening around it, flanked on the southeasterly side by quite a ravine. Beyond this was open woods and occasional cleared fields till you reached Shiloh church, then General Sherman’s headquarters.

          On the right of the battlefield and down the river was Snake Creek on the left and up the river was Lick Creek. The Federal forces lay between these two creeks, a distance of eight miles in width with a front line three miles from the river. The country south to Corinth was wet and comparatively level. No fortifications of any kind were in existence and up to Friday, April 4, 1862, no appearance of the enemy had been observed and only the ordinary picket line was maintained by the Federal forces.

          General Grant’s headquarters were at Savannah, nine miles down the Tennessee River and on the opposite bank. If at that time there was any apprehension of an attack from the Rebel forces, it was not manifest by any preparation to meet it. On Friday I went to the Landing and back by different routes and through a large portion of the troops in camp and at no place or with any command was there any preparation for attack or defense; the camps were in their usual condition of troops at rest.

          About 4 o’clock Friday afternoon, an attack was made on General Buckland’s brigade and the long roll was beat in our camp and the several regiments fell in line, but nothing further was done. Soon after this alarm, I was detailed for picket duty and directed to report at regimental headquarters and was there informed by the colonel [Rodney Mason] that I was to report with the regimental detail at brigade headquarters, which I did at once. At brigade headquarters, I found a strong picket force under command of Captain [J. Augustus] Smith of the 55^th Illinois [Co. F] and our detail was then ordered to protect the Lick Creek Ford on the Hamburg Road a mile distant from camp. On duty at this advanced post, we discovered no signs of the enemy until late Saturday night when our pickets were attacked by a cavalry force of Rebels.

          It was a clear, moonlit night and I remember that our men were on the lookout for trouble as we did not know what to expect in front. Daylight Sunday morning April 6^th brought a renewed attempt to force the picket post and we fired on the Rebel cavalry which was the first shot of the battle then just beginning.

          I was directed to go over to the ridge in front and ascertain if any Rebels were near. This I quickly did and just over this ridge lay the Rebel force, consisting of General Breckinridge’s division. I reported to Captain Smith the fact and was then ordered to return to brigade headquarters and report to Colonel [David] Stuart. I asked to be relieved as we had been then on duty 12 hours over our time and had no rations.

          On my way back, I met Major Hart [Adjutant James H. Hart who would be promoted to Major to date April 6 after the death of Lieutenant Colonel Barton Kyle which prompted the promotion of then Major George W. Andrews] of my own regiment who told me to return and for us to hold the ford as long as possible as the whole Rebel army was in our front and that a battle was on. With this command, I returned to the picket post and the men were ordered to lie down and be ready for the attack that we know was sure to come.

Judge Williams' older brother and company commander at Shiloh: Elihu S. Williams who later became captain of Co. H and served three terms in Congress, one as a "carpetbagger" from Tennessee and two terms representing his local district of Ohio. 

          In a very few minutes, a force of Rebel cavalry attempted to cross Lick Creek and then for the first time we opened on them with such a well-directed fire as to quickly drive them back on the main line. The picket line, however, was soon driven in and with others I made my way back to where the brigade was in position. I found the 54^th Ohio in line of battle with the 55^th Illinois supporting it on the right. My own regiment I did not find, and in a short time a fierce fight was going on. The Rebel force advanced rapidly and soon had possession of our camp. A very sharp contest occurred here and the killed and wounded were lying in every direction.

          I saw Colonel Kilby Smith save his colors by tearing them from the staff dropped by the color bearer who had been killed. He wrapped the flag around him and rode him back with his men. The Federal forces were slowly driven back on the left and in the afternoon it looked to me like our troops were much demoralized. I met Colonel Mason by himself and asked him where his regiment was. He did not know and said he was going to the river. At this time, I went forward with the 2^nd Michigan Battery and was soon engaged in the fierce fight made by General Prentiss near the center of the Federal front. For more than one hour preceding the surrender of Prentiss, the fighting was terrific.

          I remember as if yesterday the charge of the Rebel cavalry and the surrender of the Michigan battery. [Please read “The Noxubee Cavalry Takes a Battery"] At sundown, we were taken back to the Rebel headquarters and kept there during the night. Shells from the gunboats on the river kept everything in confusion and no rest was had that night. In the morning, the Federal prisoners, about 2,500 in number, were sent forward to Corinth and for months thereafter I was in Rebel prisons. The battle of Shiloh was the most sanguinary and stubbornly contested fight of the Civil War.

          The Rebel attack was a surprise: not one of the Federal commanders anticipated a battle at Shiloh. On Friday before that fatal Sunday, I was through the Federal camps extending from General Sherman’s extreme left to the river at Pittsburg Landing and at no place or in any command was there any preparation for or expectations of a battle. Not a single breastwork or defense of any kind was in existence. General Grant on Saturday April 5^th was at Savannah nine miles down the river and wrote General Halleck “I have scarcely the faintest idea of an attack (a general one) being made upon us, but will be prepared should such a thing take place. General Nelson’s division has arrived; the other two of General Buell’s column will arrive tomorrow and the next day. It is my present intention to send them to Hamburg, some four miles above Pittsburg, when they all get here. From that point to Corinth the road is good and a junction can be formed with the troops from Pittsburg at almost any point.”

          The real truth is that General Grant intended and expected to fight the Rebel forces in front of Corinth. It was the unexpected that happened on the beautiful Sabbath morning of April 6, 1862, as the Confederate troops rushed with the force of a tornado through the Federal camps. Many, very many of the men were asleep, most of them engaged in the usual camp duties and none of them prepared for battle. All that may be said to the contrary will never convince the common soldier that the battle of Shiloh was not a surprise to the Federal troops.

To learn more about the 71st Ohio at Shiloh, please check out these other posts:

"I Lay Me Down to Sleep and He to Die"

"Getting Our Grub and Kicking Up Our Heels Around Camp" 

 

At the outset of the war, Henry H. Williams was working as an attorney in the law firm of Conklin & Matthews in Sidney, Ohio. After a 90-day term with the 15^th Ohio Militia in western Virginia, he joined Co. A of the 71^st Ohio on October 9, 1861; his older brother Elihu served as lieutenant of Co. A and later became captain. Corporal Williams was wounded in the right hip and was captured on the first day of Shiloh. After four months in captivity, he was exchanged but the nature of his wound left him crippled and he was discharged for disability on June 10, 1863. He returned to Sidney and opened a law practice of his own but soon relocated to Troy. He was later elected prosecuting attorney and was appointed to the bench as a common pleas judge in December 1877, serving as judge until 1882, then resumed his law practice.

The debilitating impact of his wartime wound worsened such that he lost the use of his legs leaving him a “helpless invalid,” but Judge Williams continued to practice law with such marked ability that he became one of the wealthiest men in the area. Rather remarkably in October 1899 despite his disability, he (in company with his wife Eloise, son Lloyd, and niece Olive) embarked on a round-the-world trip. Leaving New York City, the group crossed the Atlantic, visiting England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy and Austria. Then they embarked on a vessel that took them through the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea (via the Suez Canal), and over the Indian Ocean where the land journey resumed, visiting India, China, and Japan. An ocean voyage across the Pacific took them first to Honolulu, in the Territory of Hawaii before landing at San Francisco, then by rail back home to Troy. The entire trip was made “without a single mishap or the missing of a single train.”

Judge Williams died in his winter home in St. Petersburg, Florida on December 26, 1906, at the age of 66.

Source:

“War Reminiscence: Grant’s Army Surprised at Shiloh. Judge H.H. Williams Writes an Account of the Fiercest battle of the War and the Capture of Prentiss’s Division,” Corporal Henry Harrison Williams, Co. A, 71^st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, The Buckeye (Troy, Ohio), February 14, 1895, pg. 1