THE MARCH OF LEW WALLACE'S DIVISION TO SHILOH.
CIRCUMSTANCES AND CHARACTER OF THE ORDER.

As General Grant passed up from Savannah on the Tigress on the 6th of April to the battle-field of Shiloh, he found General Lew Wallace awaiting him at Crump's Landing, the troops of his division having been ordered under arms at the sound of the battle. [For General Grant's statements, see pages 467-8.] General Wallace in his official report places the hour at which General Grant reached Crump's at about 9, while General Grant gives the hour of his arrival at Pittsburg Landing as about 8. Grant left Wallace a direction to hold himself in readiness for orders. In anticipation of the receipt of them, a horse was saddled at Crump's for the use of the expected messenger, the First Brigade having been already sent from Crump's to join the Second at Stony Lonesome (marked A on the map), General Wallace following about 9:15. To this point, at an hour which has been variously stated by the officers of the command at from 11 o'clock to noon (Wallace says, "exactly 11:30"), came Captain A. S. Baxter, quartermaster on Grant's staff, with the order. Concerning the time, dispatch, and character of this order there is much disagreement. General Grant says that the order was verbal; that it was given after riding out to the front, and that Baxter made a memorandum of it, though he does not say that he saw Baxter. Furthermore Rawlins says that the order was taken by him back to the Landing, half a mile away, and given verbally to Baxter, and afterward dictated to him, at the latter's request, and that Baxter started on the steamer not later than 9 o'clock. Rowley states that Grant gave the order verbally and in person to Baxter at once upon arriving at the Landing, and then rode immediately to the front. Wallace states that Baxter delivered an unsigned order and said that "it had been given to him verbally, but that in coming down the river he had reduced it to writing."

Concerning the circumstances and character of the order Captain Baxter made the following statement in the New-York "Mail and Express" for November 4th, 1886:

"I will given my own recollection of the event at Pittsburg Landing. On Sunday, between the hours of 8 and 9 o'clock A. M., April 6th, 1862, Adjutant-General Rawlins, of General Grant's staff, requested me to go to Crump's Landing (five miles below) and order General Lew Wallace to march his command at once by the River Road to Pittsburg Landing, and joint the army on the right. At the same time General Rawlins dictated the order to General Wallace, which was written by myself and signed by General Rawlins.

"On meeting General Wallace I gave the order verbally, also handed to him the written order. General Wallace said 'he was waiting for orders, had heard the firing all the morning, and was ready to move with his command immediately-knew the road and had put it in good order.'
"My stay with Lew Wallace did not exceed three minutes. I had no further conversation with him, and I returned immediately to Pittsburg Landing."

As to the character of the order: General Grant's statement (see page 468) is that the order as given was "to march immediately to Pittsburg by the road nearest the river." Captain Rowley says, "to march with his division up the river, and into the field on the right of our line, as rapidly as possible." Rawlins says it read "substantially as follows: 'Major-General Wallace: You will move forward your division from Crump's Landing, leaving a sufficient force to protect the public property at that place, to Pittsburg Landing, on the road nearest to and parallel to the river, and form in line at right angles with the river, immediately in rear of the camp of Major-General C. F. Smith's division on our right [W. H. L. Wallace's], and there wait further orders.'" General Wallace says, that as received, it directed him "to come up and take position on the right of the army, and form my line of battle at a right angle with the river," and "to leave a force to prevent surprise at Crump's Landing." Colonel James R. Ross says, "I very distinctly remember that this order directed you to move forward and join General Sherman's right on the Purdy Road, and form your line of battle at right angles with the river, and then act as circumstances would dictate." * General Fred. Knefler says, "It was a written order to march and form a junction with the right of the army." @@ Captain Addison Ware says it was "to move your division up and join General Sherman's right on the road leading from Pittsburg Landing to Purdy." # General Knefler adds, "The order was placed in my hands as Assistant Adjutant-General; but where it is now, or what became of it, I am unable to say. Very likely, having been written on a scrap of paper, it was lost."@@

ROUTE AND LIMIT OF THE MARCH.

All reports agree that the march of the two brigades began at 12 o'clock, along the road A B C. Wallace not arriving at Pittsburg Landing, General Grant sent Captain Rowley of his staff to hurry him forward. Rowley went by the River Road almost to Crump's Landing, and then "a distance of between five and six miles," when he reached the rear of Wallace's division by the road A B C, and passing the resting troops continued to the head of the column, where he found Wallace and delivered the orders, and gave him the first information that the right of the army had been driven back. Wallace then ordered a counter-march of the troops. The point at which this turning took place is fixed by General Wallace at D, half-way between the Purdy crossing and the Owl Creek bridge. (This identification is fully confirmed by letters of October 5th and 6th, 1887, written by Generals Fred. Knefler and G. F. McGinnis, Captains Thomas C. Pursel and George F. Brown, and Dr. S. L. Ensminger, all of whom took part in the march, and the last two of whom examined the ground in 1884 to determine the point.) In the "Official Records" is a sketch map, without scale, by Colonel James B. McPherson, placing the

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* Ross to Wallace, January 25th, 1868.

@@ Knefler to Wallace, February 19th, 1868.

# Ware to Wallace [1868].
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