Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/135

 The Medical History of the Confederate States. 129

literary emporium of Tennessee, was lost, and this noble State became the common battle-ground of hostile and contending armies.

Both sides levied recruits and supplies from the unfortunate citi- zens of Tennessee; Columbus, Kentucky, was abandoned, and the fall of Island No. 10, Fort Pillow and Memphis followed.

The unbroken tide of Federal victory in the West was rudely arrested by the armies gathered by General Albert Sidney Johnston and General G. T. Beauregard near the southern shore of the Ten- nessee, at Corinth, Mississippi.

The brave Confederate commander, General Albert Sidney Johns- ton sealed his devotion to the Southern Confederacy with his life, on the 6th of April, 1862, whilst leading to victory the gallant soldiers of the Armies of Mississippi and Tennessee.

At the battle of Shiloh, April 6 and 7, 1862, the effective total of the Confederate forces, comprising the Army of Mississippi, before the battle, numbered, forty thousand three hundred and fifty-five, and after the bloody repulse of the yth, the effective total was only twenty-nine thousand six hundred and thirty-six. General Beaure- gard, in his official report, places his loss at Shiloh at one thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight killed outright, eight thousand nine hundred and twelve wounded, nine hundred and fifty-nine missing, making an aggregate of casualties of ten thousand six hundred and ninety-nine.

The losses at Shiloh were distributed among the different corps of the Confederate army as follows :

Killed.

First Corps, Major- General Polk 385

Second Corps, Major- General Bragg 553

Third Corps, Major-General Hardee 404

Reserve, Major-General Breckenridge. . . . 386

Wounded. Missing.

i>953 19

2,441 634

1,936 141

1,682 165

Total.

1,728 8,012

959

The suffering of the Confederate wounded were great, indeed, as they lay upon the cold ground of Shiloh during the night of the 6th, exposed to the pitiless rain and the murderous fire of the gunboats. In the subsequent siege of Corinth, less than fifty thousand Con- federate troops successfully resisted the advance of one hundred and twenty-five thousand Federal troops abundantly supplied with food and water, and armed and equipped with most approved weapons of modern warfare.