Worse Scared than Hurt: A 41st Illinoisan Survives Shiloh
S ergeant Fred True of the 41 st Illinois numbered among the lucky survivors of Shiloh as he explained in a letter to his sisters back home in Illinois. The regiment went into action on the morning of April 6, 1862, and soon found itself in a pounding firefight with advancing Confederates. “I was hit twice. One ball struck my leg and numbed it considerably without entering the pants. The other struck me on the chin or throat and drove me from the field. The wound bled severely so that I was worse scared than hurt,” True confessed. “Buell’s forces came to our relief Sunday night and on Monday by desperate fighting we forced them to fall back as steadily as they had advanced on Sunday. But for Buell’s forces, I believe we would all have been whipped and killed or taken prisoner.” Sergeant True’s letter originally was published in the April 17, 1862, edition of the Mattoon Gazette , making it one of the earliest firsthand accounts published about the Battle of Shi