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April 6-7, 2021 mark the 159th Anniversary of the battle of Shiloh, and as this fight was the first major combat for many Mississippi regiments, I wanted to share a reminiscence written by someone from the Magnolia State. The following was authored by Samuel L. Cooke, who served in the "Calhoun Avengers," Company C, Blythe's Mississippi Regiment, later designated the 44th Mississippi Infantry. The following account was published almost 100 years ago to the day in the Carthage Courier, April 21, 1921:
SHILOH WAS BLOODY BATTLE
To an old Confederate soldier, now lingering on the end of a century, memory with unavoidable tenacity, Shiloh was a great battle, the bloodiest perhaps of modern times, until the late great war, considering its duration and the number of men engaged.
After the defeat at Fishing Creek and the downfall of Fort Donelson, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson, then with his headquarters at Bowling Green, Ky., moved his lines southward and established a defensive line along what was then known as the Memphis & Charleston Railroad. To break this line by massing heavy forces against it, brought from Cairo, Paducah and Louisville, was the purpose of Gen. Johnson.
The command to which the writer belonged evacuated Columbus, Ky., on the first day of March, 1862, and after camping at several points along the Mobile & Ohio Railroad encamped at a small station called Bethel, where we remained till noon on April 4. On the morning of that day we had orders to prepare three days’ rations and be ready to march at a moment’s notice, which we did expeditiously.
Marching out in the evening, we camped at Purdy, where we spent the night in showers of rain. On the morning of the fifth we pursued our eastward course at a moderate pace till twilight, when we were ordered to stack arms and speak only in whispers. We could hear picket firing here and there all night.
On the morning of the sixth we seized our guns and stood in battle line beneath the rays of a beautiful sunshine. By this time skirmishing resolved itself into heavy firing on our right. After an order to march going a few paces, we had the order ‘Rear into line, double quick march.’ Executing this order, we found ourselves in close proximity with the tents of the enemy, which seemed to be taking breakfast in quiet serenity, with which we unceremoniously interfered, we marched uninvited through their camps, when we were confronted by them in strong battle array, at close range.
We halted just in front of a large battery supported by a regiment of infantry on either side. Here we did not wait for a formal introduction, and soon afterward found Gen. McLernand [McClernand] to be very contrary; he refused to give Gen. Bushrod Johnson the right of way. We had to force this way, not by eminent domain proceedings, but by bullets and bayonets. The same method was adopted all along the line.
Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson believed in getting as close to the enemy in battle as possible, and had great confidence in the bayonet. Gen. Cheatam was of the same mold, and was a past master in celerity, insomuch that he rudely refused to give Gen. Sherman time to recognize his line when they became demoralized and retreated. Reference is here made to Polk’s Corps, Cheatam’s Division, Bushrod Johnson’s Brigade, Blythe’s Regiment of 12 companies and Company C, by which you can locate this old rebel in the fight.
In our first attack our captain was knocked out, severely wounded; 8 were killed and 48 wounded. This was done in a few minutes when the 154th Tennessee, one of the finest regiments in the Army of Tennessee, came to our relief and joined on our immediate right. Then we raised the ‘rebel yell’ and started the whole line front of us on the retreat. Following them up, they halted on a long ridge, leaving us in a ravine, where they had all the advantage. Here we lay on the ground and wished we were pancakes instead of soldiers. Here Col. Blythe and Lieut. Col. Heron were killed and our major was wounded and carried off the field. At this juncture Capt. Jacob H. Sharp, senior captain in the regiment, mounted the horse from which Col. Blythe was shot and took immediate command of the regiment. Here our first lieutenant was killed and second lieutenant severely wounded. Our third lieutenant took command of the company, and stayed with us to the end, although he received a severe wound.
Up to the time this lieutenant had been rather unpopular, but was now the most popular man in the company. Here two more of our company were killed. But when Capt. Sharp took command we rose up and started another rebel yell. This started the enemy on the retreat again. We kept them demoralized the remainder of the day. In the afternoon Gen. Bushrod Johnson was severely wounded and carried off the field on a litter. Then Col. Preston Smith, colonel of the 154th Tennessee, being senior colonel, took command of the brigade.
We followed the enemy very nearly to the banks of the Tennessee River and formed a part of the horse shoe in which Gen. Prentiss found himself when he surrendered. After he was forced to yield the firing ceased and he found himself under the protection of the white flag, his anger, which would bear the test of comparison with the wrath of Achilles, so graphically described by Homer, was manifested by the most lurid oaths and terrific abuse of the rebels, some of whom were tempted to shoot him.
The company to which the writer belonged started into the onslaught with 101 officers and men and came out of the conflict with 27 able for duty. We had 11 killed and 63 wounded. Some companies suffered worse and some were wiped entirely out of existence.
There were approximately 100,000 men engaged in this battle, in the ration of 49 federals to 43 rebels, and the slain were in about the ratio of 13 federal to 9 rebel soldiers. Twenty-three thousand men were put out of action. All this was done in about 8 hours, and by raw troops on each side.
But the attempt to describe Shiloh so as to be realized by a person not engaged in this bloody conflict is futile. We fought western men. We had been taught that the ‘Yankees will not fight,’ but we realized that day the tug of war. We were Americans on both sides, and about the only difference was that Johnson was too quick for Grant. We wish we could forget Shiloh, but as April 6 comes round annually bitter recollections present it to the memory of an old Confederate.
In 1911, Cooke wrote to Dunbar Rowland, director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, concerning the history of the 44th Mississippi Infantry. In this letter he included information about the battle of Shiloh:
Capt. DuBerry was an old man, over 50, at the time of his enlistment. He was badly disabled by wounds at Shiloh, where Lieut. McEachern was killed simultaneously with Cols. Blythe and Herron. I was in a few feet of them at the time - it was the hottest place I was ever in. In this battle our Co. lost 11 killed and 52 wounded, as I now recall the number. Lieut. Gaston was badly wounded and had to be carried off. The command of the co. then devolved on Lieut. Mitchel, who got pretty badly wounded through the calf of the leg, but he satid [stayed] with us, although his boot leg was filled with blood. You make another small error in your account of this battle. Maj. Moore was badly wounded about the time Cols. Blythe and Herron were killed, and Capt. J.H. Sharp of Co. A took command of the Regt., or what was left of it. When we fell back to Corinth, we held an election for Colonel, and for his gallantry and efficiency, Capt. Sharp got every vote in the regiment. More than half the men had been killed or wounded. Our Co. went into the battle with 101 men and officers and came out with 37, some of them pretty badly scarred. One was missing.
Our Co. was at first called 'The Calhoun Avengers,' but we got the nick name of the 'Yellow Jackets' after the battle of Belmont, in which we took a pretty active part, and Col. Blythe, just as we started into the battle of Shiloh, said to us 'I want the Yellow Jackets to sting like h-l today.' It seems from the number of dead and wounded in front of us, that we took him at his word and carried out his admonition.
[Series 390, 44th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, Box 15641, MDAH]
Samuel L. Cooke survived the war, although he was wounded in the hand at the battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, December 31, 1862. He eventually settled in Webster County, and had a very interesting life, serving at various times as a teacher and lawyer. Sam married three times, and had five children. He died in Walthall, Mississippi, on September 10, 1926, when he was 84 years old. He is buried in the Old Bethany
Cemetery in Calhoun County, Mississippi.
(Ancestors of Anselm Cook by Frances Cooke Chan)