It was hard to convince Company E that it was right and best to abandon their homes and State to the enemy without a fight. After it was known the retreat would be continued South and the State left to the enemy, Col. Battle got Gov. Harris and Secretary of State, Gen. Whitthorne, to come around and make speeches, encouraging us all they could; but the speeches were unnecessary, the men had not even hesitated, but they were sad indeed- At the conclusion of the speeches some one proposed "three cheers," but only a few tried to cheer, they were too sad.
The next morning, however, notwithstanding the sadness and gloom which hung thickly over the army, we formed, and to a man marched out, leaving home and all its endearments in the hands of the enemy. We passed through Shelbyville and Fayetteville, Tenn., Athens and Decatur, Ala., and stopped a short while at Iuka, Miss., and then on to Burnsville, Miss., where we drew new Enfield Rifles, recently brought from England. This was indeed a proud day for the 20th Tennessee Regiment.
We were now as well armed as any troops in the army and felt like we could do as good fighting as the best. From Burnsville we went to the front at Shiloh. We were now in Breckinridge's division, our brigade being in command of Col. W. S. Statham of the 15th Mississippi. On Sunday morning, April 6th, 1862, the battle was begun, Breckinridge in reserve. As we moved along, our advance driving the enemy rapidly before them, capturing their encampment and stores of every description, we (the reserve) came to the place where the battle opened; here we found our own men, the killed, wounded, and their attendants. A little further on, we came to where the enemy's line stood and received the Confederate charge. This showed where their lines had been, many of their wounded not yet cared for; but sad as it all was we must proceed, for the bat t1e was now raging. With our men steadily driving them, wt passed through their camps, and found them just as they had left them to form their line of battle; we moved to the right and started forward in the line of battle. We first came in contact with a mule lot, double staked with riders. We could not take time to tear down the fence, and had to climb it on both sides of the lot, and as we went over the second fence the enemy's skirmishers opened fire on us.
I don't think they hurt a. man, but the climbing of the fence caused some confusion. We now charged, and in about one hundred yards we met the enemy on a thinly wooded ridge. After the first volley they dropped back to a deep ravine parallel with our line, and right here was the slaughter for both sides. We halted, and it seemed a question of who could shoot quickest and best. We charged and they broke, and as they ran up the steep sides of the ravine, our men, at close range poured the fire into their backs and their loss was terrible; many of them laid down in the ravine and did not attempt to escape.
We pursued them through the woods perhaps half a mile when they disappeared from our front; then being short of ammunition, Col. Battle moved us back a short distance, we being at the time ahead of the line of battle, and re-formed his line; this was an open woods fight. We now had Enfield rifles and the fight was quickly over, but our loss was terrible. Bob Peyton, Bunk Ridley, and McLaughlin, who did not belong really to our company but went into the fight with us, were killed. J. W. Crutcher was also killed. Wm. Vardell, John Neblett, J. T. Shelton, John Espey, Dan. Miller, and Lieut. East were amongst the wounded; other casualties are not recalled. Wm. Vardell was shot through the head and left on the field for dead, but survived and was exchanged, and returned to the company at Vicksburg in the summer of 1862. But if our loss was heavy, that of the enemy was much more so. In the ravine from which we drove them, not one-half of them could possibly have escaped. The bottom of the ravine seemed to be literally piled with their dead. As we came into line and charged, the 45th Tennessee Regiment, coming up on our left, fired by mistake into the left wing of our regiment, and the loss to our left wing was considerably heavier than that of the right.
While the firing was at its heaviest, and the two lines about one hundred yards apart, a small herd of goats, led by a sedate old "billy" showed up about midway between. They did not last long, for when we charged the ravine there were only one or two of them left. The wonder is, why a soldier would shoot at a goat when so many of the enemy were present to shoot. We now moved a little to the left and forward again, reaching the top of another low wocded ridge, when Col. Statham rode in front, waved his sword and dashed forward. The line gave the yell and dashed forward wildly. The enemy had another camp in plain view where they had stacked their arms and surrendered, we never knew how many. They waved their caps and cheered us as we dashed through.
We were successful, and the elation of victory filled us for the time to overflowing, we thought the battle over. We passed through their tents a short distance, halted, re-formed our line and moved forward again, and when we saw them again they were re-forming their lines, and for some unaccountable reason to us, we stood there and watched them rally and re-form their lines, instead of dashing right into them while partially panicked, and making short work of it. We waited until they were ready, then an artilery duel began, the gun-boats on the river taking a hand. The roar of the cannon on both land and water, together with the screaming and explosions of the shells was simply terrible, the counterpart of which we never witnessed again. But here we remained until after dark, and withdrew a short distance to pass a miserable night in line, for in addition to the sadness caused by the loss of so many comrades, bravest of the brave, and others were missing that we could not account for, either dead, wounded, or simply lost from the command in the confusion of battle, or the darkness of the night, it rained one big, hard, thunder storm after another the entire night, the gunboats throwing their shells steadily all the while. Next morning Apr. 7th, we were moved about several times, finally going forward to support a battery, and laid down, Company E, just on the edge of a woods, the left wing of the Company in the woods the right wing in the field. Here we had an artillery duel at close range, the enemy entirely in the woods with dense underbrush. At length we were ordered to charge through, and on we went like a storm, but we met with a warm reception. Our line was badly confused in struggling through the underbrush, briars and grapevines, and the enemy held their fire until we were close on them before they opened on us.
The smoke from their guns was blinding, and while we were right at them, we could not see one of them. Human nature could stand no more. Our men broke nor could we re-form at the battery; we did re-form, however, about a quarter of a mile back in the woods, not by regiments or companies, but promiscuously, and as we were ready to move again, two regiments of re-enforcements came up, and we advanced to re-take our battery. We would run from tree to tree and fire, getting nearer all the time, until the enemy b1oke, and we held the line we had occupied early in the morning, having re-taken our battery and capturing several pieces from the enemy, which they had brought up. So far as we are aware the hard fighting at Shiloh was over, there was more fighting through the day but it was desultory.
Our loss in this day's (Monday's) fight was heavy again; and of Company E, Bailey Tucker was killed, and W. E. Brothers wounded.
We have a vivid recollection of both day's fighting as far as could be seen and understood by men fighting in the ranks. We observed on both days acts of courage and individual heroism, that could they be shown just as they occur1ed, wculd cause the actors names to be handed down in the pages of history for generations to come.
On Sunday afternoon Frank Crosthwait who was Color Bearer at the time, was lying down watching the enemy reform. He had his chin resting on the spur of an elm tree when he saw a cannon ball coming straight towards him, bouncing and bumping along. He dropped back and moved his head just before the ball struck where his chin rested. The gay little fellow looked back and laughed and remarked that "his head was not there."
Bunk Ridley who |was killed was a member of the second Tennessee, and was furloughed from Virginia, and volunteered to go into this fight with his brother, W. T. Ridley of Company E, was as big hearted and brave a man as ever battled for the Confederate's cause.
Late in the afternoon the retreat back to Corinth commenced; the spare wagons and ambulances filled with the worst wounded, those who were unable to walk. W. E. Brothers, John Neblett and J. T. Shelton casually dropped in together. All were wounded, Brothers in the head, Neblett in the arm and Shelton in the shoulder. Shelton being weakest from loss of blood took position in the center, thus they marched through mud and water, wading swollen streams, until they met the wagons, one of the teamsters was BuckHamilton of Company E.who said "he was ordered to the general hospital, but he'd be d—d if he didn't take this squad back to camp." Soon he had sixteen men of the 20th. in his wagon, when he came to a fellow lying by the road side with a bayonet hole through his thigh, who pleaded piteously to be taken up. Buck said, "you see what I've got, if my boys say so I will take you if it pulls the necks off my mules." The boys said so, and Buck's little mules pulled seventeen men through the mud to Corinth.
The army went into camp at Corinth, Miss., and were drilled incessantly. Our brigade did the provost work for the town, and the pranks and jokes were just such as to make memory pleasant yet to recall. The duty we were on prevented us from engaging in the almost daily skirmishes with the enemy in 'our front.
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