Walk in his Footsteps

Compiled by Judy Weaver  

We are coming, Father Abraham,
Six hundred thousand more,
From Mississippi’s winding stream,  
And from New England’s shore.  
We leave our ploughs and workshops,  
Our wives and children dear,  
With hearts too full for utterance,  
With but a silent tear.  
We will not look behind us  
But steadfastly before.  
We are coming, Father Abraham,  
Six hundred thousand more!

Author Unknown

Isaac Brokaw Wallace
ca 1864

Isaac Brokaw Wallace was just 20 years old when the 11^th Iowa Infantry Regiment was organized on his birthday, September 28, 1861 in Davenport, Iowa.[1]

The Regiment was ordered to St. Louis, Missouri in November 1861 where it remained until March 1862.[2]  They departed for St. Louis on March 10^th, 1862, and arrived at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee on April 4^th, 1862.   The Regiment was assigned to the 1^st Brigade, 1^st Division, Army of the Tennessee, General John McClernand, Division Commander, and Col. A.M. Hare of the 11^th Iowa in command of the 1^st Brigade.[3]

Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee 2001 

Sunday, April 6^th, 1862

              “General Grant was… at my breakfast table when he heard the report from a cannon.  Holding, untasted (sic), a cup of coffee, he paused in conversation to listen a moment at the report of another cannon.  He hastily arose, saying to his staff officers, ‘Gentlemen, the ball is in motion; let’s be off.’  His flagship…as he called his special steamboat…was lying at the wharf.”[4] – Mrs. Cherry - whose home in Savannah, Tennessee was Grant’s Headquarters.

Cherry Mansion, Savannah, Tennessee

General Grant’s Headquarters

  The Battle of Shiloh had begun.

  Sunday morning 9:30 a.m.

Site of the 11^th Iowa’s 1^st Position 9:30 a.m.

  “Iowa, 11^th Regiment Infantry Volunteers commanded Lt. Col. William Hall (wounded).  This Regiment detached from its brigade was placed in position here by order of General McClernand about 9:30 a.m. on April 6, 1862.  It was once strongly attacked by the enemy suffering here its most severe loss.  It held this position until 11:00 a.m. when it retired to it’s second position 100 yards in front of it’s camp in Jones field.  It had present for duty 763, its loss was 1 officer, 33 men killed, 5 officers and 155 men wounded, 1 man missing, total 195.” Written on the reverse of this monument.

    “That at the Battle of Shiloh, Tenn on the 6^th day of April 1862 was wounded by a musket ball through his left foot.  He was laying (sic) down at the time loading his gun.  The ball struck him on the top of his foot, passing through came out in the hollow of the same.  That he was not sent away to the hospital but remained with his company.”   Declaration for Original Invalid Pension, Isaac Brokaw Wallace

              “One man of the 11^th Iowa was shot through his hat.  Impressed with the close call he had stuck his hat on his ramrod and waved it in the air to show his comrades.  Instantly rebel fire was trained upon the hat and the soldier was killed.”  Capt. James G. Day, 15^th Iowa.[5]

Map of Shiloh Battlefield showing three positions of the 11^th Iowa and Headquarters in Jones Field.

Site of the 11^th Iowa’s 2^nd Position 11:00 a.m.

“This Regiment (11^th Iowa Infantry) reformed here at 11:00 a.m. April 6, 1862 and advanced, fighting to within 50 yards of its first position.  It was then driven back slowly to this place where it was engaged until 2:30 p.m. when it retired to siege guns.”

              “While we were hotly engaged a section of Dresser’s Battery came up and unlimbered close in our rear and opened fire on the enemy.  The wooded blocks that they place behind the shells in loading the guns allways (sic) flew among our ranks wounding the men and we were ordered to fall back as to be in line with the battery and in doing so I exchanged places with Peter Craven who was soon after killed by a musket ball entering his brain from the top of his head.” William Futz, 11^th Iowa[6]

   Sunday 12:00 Noon  

Site of the 11^th Iowa’s 3rd Position

Site of the 11^th Iowa’s 3rd Position

“U.S. 11^th Iowa Infantry, Hare’s (1^st) Brig., McClernand’s (1^st) Div., Army of the Tennessee. This Regiment was engaged here, with the 11^th and 20^th Illinois, about noon April 6^th, 1862, in the capture of Cobb’s Kentucky Battery of six guns.  The Regiment advanced 300 yards capturing a Standard from the enemy and then fell back, fighting, to Jones Field.”

            “Some of them were wounded and covered with blood from head to foot.  Some of the wounded were being carried on stretchers. … Infantry, cavalry, artillery and all arms of the service were flying toward the River in countless numbers.  Men yelled as they passed us ‘Don’t go out there’ ‘You’ll catch hell’ ‘We are all cut to pieces’ ‘We are whipped.’  Some declared they were the only ones left out of a whole Regiment or Battery. … There was also infantry officers with swords drawn and trying to head off the flying troops and make them halt.  C.F. Boyd, 15^th Iowa[7]

             “A little further were some twenty bodies, … each by its own pool of viscous blood, which emitted a peculiar scent, which was new to me. …I can never forget … those wide open dead eyes …That half-mile square of woodland, lighted brightly by the sun, and littered by …dead and wounded men …was the first Field of Glory I had seen …, and the first time that Glory sickened me …and made me suspect it was all a glittering lie.”  Confederate Soldier, Stanley, 6^th Arkansas, “Shaver’s Brigade.[8]

Sunday Evening

The end of the first day of the battle brought storms and heavy rain that pounded the dead and wounded laying on the bloody battlefield.

             “The darkness was impenetrable, except when the lightning flashed.  The groans of the wounded and dying could be heard in the dim temptest (sic)… Wounded horses… floundered upon the ground and came running through the darkness.”[9] C.F. Boyd, 15^th Iowa

Monday, April 7^th – Day two  

During the night Buell’s Army arrived at Pittsburg Landing.  Union forces were in desperate need of Buell’s reinforcements.  The combined Union forces, 55,000 men, took up position for the final defensive against Confederate forces.  At 2:00 p.m. the Confederate forces retreated to Corinth, Mississippi. 

            “Federal and Confederate lay alternately scattered over the ground.  Some of them wounded and so near dead from exposure that they were mostly insane.”[10] C.F. Boyd, 15^th Iowa

                  “In places dead men lay so closely that a person could walk over two acres of ground and not step off the bodies.”[11] Bell, 2^nd Iowa, Tuttle’s Brigade

              “Some are torn all to pieces, leaving nothing but their heads or their boots.”[12] C.F. Boyd, 15^th Iowa, McClernand’s Division

Bloody Pond – During the battle, soldiers came to this pond to drink and clean their wounds.  Many men and horses died in the pond, staining the water dark red with their blood.[13]

              “Many of us sat upon dead horses while we ate our breakfast of hard bread and raw bacon.  Near us were six Confederates… killed by a single cannonball that had plunged through a tree.”[14] Morton, 25^th Missouri, Peabody’s Brigade

  Isaac Brokaw Wallace survived the Battle of Shiloh with a minor wound, a musket ball through the top of his foot, which exited the bottom.  Despite the wound Isaac remained on the battlefield throughout the battle.

  The casualties of Shiloh were enormous, 1728 Confederates killed, 8012 wounded and 959 missing.  Union forces reported 1754 killed, 8408 wounded and 2885 missing.