| On Shiloh's
Battle Ground |
 |
Transcribed
and edited in 2011 by Jack D. Elliott, Jr.
- from a printed copy in the Ripley Advertiser, newspaper,
Ripley, Mississippi, 26 August 1897 -
This is a letter by Sallie Murry
Falkner (1850-1906) of Oxford , Mississippi, and formerly of
Ripley, Mississippi, to her father, Dr. John Y. Murry, Sr.
(1829-1915) of Ripley, describing her August 1897 visit to the
Shiloh National Military Park with her husband, John W. T. Falkner
(1848-1922). Established on December 27, 1894, the Shiloh National
Military Park was still in its formative stage when the Falkners
visited. They also visited the Shiloh National Cemetery which lies
within the boundaries of the military park. The cemetery is older
than the park though, having been established in 1866, immediately
after the war. In 1897, the park and the cemetery was under
different administrations.
At the time of their visit the
Falkners were apparently staying at Red Sulphur Springs from
whence they drove by carriage to the park. Red Sulphur Springs was
a resort on the west bank of the Tennessee River a short distance
north of the Mississippi-Tennessee state line and a few miles
southeast of Shiloh Military Park.
I have provided annotations to
elucidate the letter. In this I have been greatly assisted
by Stacy Allen, Chief Park Ranger at Shiloh National Military Park
and long time Shiloh historian. About the letter he comments:
“Sallie's is an interesting account of an early Shiloh visit, when
only inscribed boards nailed to trees by the [park] commission
marked the historic sites on the battlefield. She observes the
cannons and cannon balls being stockpiled near the cemetery, of
which we have photographic documentation” (email, Allen to
Elliott, December 14, 2011)
As published in the Ripley
Advertiser, the letter occupied portions of three columns on a
single page. Unfortunately the bottom lines of the first two
columns were clipped off leaving two small gaps which are
indicated at the appropriate places in the text below.
(photo taken
in front of his home in Ripley, MS)
Dr. John Young Murry, Sr.
1829-1915
The transcript:
On Shiloh's Battle Ground
(This letter was written by Mrs.
J.W.T. Falkner to her father, Dr. Murry, and was not intended for
publication—therefore the better. We feel quite sure that our
ex-confederate soldier subscribers, especially will very much
enjoy it and we publish with great pleasure.--Ed.)
Additional information about certain items are included at the end
and are notated by { }.
Red Sulphur Sprg's Aug. 16, '97
MY DEAR FATHER:--
As we have decided to spend another
week here I think I'd better write and let you folks know. I
weighed 124 lbs. The day I came and have just weighed again and
find I've gained 8 lbs.--good, solid pounds.
Oh! Papa we went to Shiloh
yesterday and Johnnie and I both said several times “I wish Papa
could go over this ground with us.” When we got up yesterday
morning it was cloudy and threatening and we all felt a little
gloomy at the prospect. But Johnnie and Gen. Taylor asserted
positively that it would not rain, so at 8 o'clock we started. We
had two conveyances full.
Gen. and Mrs. Taylor and Johnnie
and I had a comfortable carriage with such a pretty pair of bays
and as Johnnie drove I felt safe and enjoyed the ride ever so
much. The other vehicle was a three seated hack full of young
folk—except Mrs. Jude Rhone, of Grenada, and three on a seat. The
roads were fine and the prettiest country I ever passed through.
The cotton fields stretched out as far as eye could reach (no
fences, for nine miles) in full bloom of white and red—and the
corn fields also were grand.
In the bottoms of Chambers' Creek
and the famous Lick Creek, you could see the high water mark away
up among the branches of tall trees—and high among the branches
would be arms full of cotton stalks. It must have been a scene of
desolation last spring when the Tennessee was on her very worst
behavior—but now the smiling fields and smooth flowing river looks
as innocent as if such a thing as overflow was unknown.
We crossed Lick creek and then
Johnnie and Gen. Taylor began to grow excited and intensely
interested. We bore to the right and passed sign boards, one after
another showing where each command of “Yanks” had camped. If one
was off the road, Johnnie would run out and read for us, and when
we came to the tree where Gen. Johnson [sic, General Albert Sidney
Johnston] was mortally wounded we got out, and all stood silently
a moment and read over and over, and then we started out to hunt
the place where the sign board said he died--“about 50 yards south
of the tree, in the ravine.” It was unmarked and we could not tell
exactly where. Mr. Shaw, the Superintendent in charge of the
National Cemetery1 was with Gen. Harris when he located the
exact spot. {2} The place that history tells of and excurtionists
[sic] have been shown as the place where Gen. Johnson was shot all
these years, is some distance from the real spot.
It seems Gen. Harris could never be
persuaded to revisit the battle ground until last year. A great
crowd started with him from Pittsburg [Landing], {3} at last
he stopped, and said “you all go back, you bother me”--so he and
Mr. Shaw made a detour and began at the first of the attack and
went slowly over the ground. When Gen. Harris came to this tree, a
large oak (and it should be enclosed) he stopped and said “here is
the spot, and down that ravine he was carried and died.” In the
tree there is a big ball buried that the relic hunters have not
been able to get out. Our young folks had left us to go to the
landing where a boat was starting with a crowd of excurtionists
from St. Louis and we joined them at the cemetery. We passed more
and more sign boards showing where different commands had camped
(Yanks) Regiments of Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa and headquarters of
different Generals. I remember the names [Col. David] Stuart [Maj.
Gen. John A.] McClerm [sic, McClernand] and [Brig. Gen. W.H.L.]
Wallace [Brig. Gen. Stephen A.] Harlbutt and others.
Then we passed the “Peach orchard,”
the “bloody pond”--then the road to the “hornets nest.” All along
we were stopping and going over the ground; Johnnie & Gen.
Taylor just as eagerly discussing the different moves as if they
were going to battle. I was excited and wrought up over it all—as
they.
[missing lines at the bottom of the
first column]
[Before the beginning of the battle
General Johnston announced: “Tonight we water] our horses in the
Tennessee”--and of [Brig. Gen. James R.] Chalmer's brave
charge—[then Col. Nathan B.] Forrest's matchless courage and
[Maj. Gen. Thomas C.] Hindman's {4} bravery and effective work;
and how many slain there were and where they lay closely crowded
in shallow graves.
We passed great pyramids of cannon
balls and shells and hundreds of cannons waiting for the
completion of the park to be placed in position. When we drove up
to the cemetery, I thought I would see a lovely well kept burying
ground where the Federal and Confederate soldiers lie peacefully
sleeping, waiting for the resurrection morn together. Mr. Kirby
and Mr. Pryde, who with Mr. Thompson are surveying and laying off
the park. {5} had both been over to Red Sulphur, and knew we
were coming, so they met us with extra cordiality and seemed very
anxious that we should enjoy ourselves. It is a perfectly lovely
place, beautiful flowers are blooming everywhere handsome hot
house plants—fine grape vines well pruned with white grapes on
them—I saw no purple.
When they started through the
cemetery gates, I said I wanted to see the Confederate graves
first and when they told me only Federals were buried there, I
took my seat under the trees and told the rest to go on. Pa, I was
so hurt I just couldn't help but cry. The old superintendent came
out to say something nice to me and I said: “Are you a Southern
man or a Northern?” He brushed his hand up and down a box brush
near him and said: “Oh! It does not matter now all those things
are passed now.” Johnnie said no wonder the man was embarrassed
when I fired into him so. I told him it did not look as if those
times were done away with and the North and South at peace when
the Yankees lay in beautiful cemeteries under marble slabs and we
were taxed to help pay him and others keep the graves green and
flowers blooming while our brave boys lay out there in the ravines
unmarked and places unknown. I tell you I don't know what else I
said. Johnnie came up and the old man was especially nice to him
and me too and kept his eye on me while he talked. He took our
pictures and told me to push my bonnet back. Johnnie said he
wanted a picture of that fire-eating, unreconstructed Southern
woman.
Afterwards I said I smelled
something like pine apples and the old gentleman said they were
apples. He went down in the cellar and brought us each one the
prettiest, the most fragrant yellow apples I ever saw. I ate a
half one and did not throw it up last night for a wonder.
Well, after registering our names,
looking at the maps of the park, Mr. Kirby and Mr. Thompson so
kindly explained, seeing the relics picked up and
preserved--(there is a gun found last year in the bottom of a
branch, buried in the mud 34 years, that I did wish I wished)--we
left for Shiloh church.
I did go to the speakers stand in
the cemetery to see the river. As I stood there I looked at the
beautiful stream and the grassy slopes covered with the white
marble slabs, and read the tablets around the center, with the
beautiful verses telling of brave deeds and gallant soldiers that
lie on “fame's eternal camping ground.” I thought of the bivouac
of our Southern dead and I turned and went away from there as hot
and hurt a woman as you could have found in 1862 when the strife
was at its height. If I had had the sense to know that the United
States would not care for the rebels they had whipped—but no one
had told me. Johnnie says “Why our boys lie just as peacefully and
the Lord knows where they are, Sallie, what on earth are you
crying for?”
Well, we drove on to the church,
not the same but on the same place; then down to the spring,{6}
and Pa, we crossed the Purdy road twice. We ate dinner and Johnnie
bought me a glass of sweet milk just out of the spring-house. It
was delicious. The old man who lives just above, brought down a
bucket of butter milk for the crowd. Said his wife was expecting
company and could not spare any more sweet milk.
After dinner Johnnie and Gen.
Taylor went out reconnoitering where our men had fought and
been. Johnnie found a grape shot where Hindman's brigade
captured Waterhouse Battery [commanded by Capt. Allen C.
Waterhouse, and under Brig. Gen. W.T. Sherman's 5th Division of
the Army of the Tennessee, USA]. I have
[missing lines at the bottom of the
second column]
awhile I made them all come go with
me to the Confederate graves, in a field just below where
Waterhouse Battery was stationed. We had our pictures take here.
Mr. Rowsey {7} said some years ago, an old steamboat captain who
had been a Confederate soldier and fought at Shiloh, came all the
way from the West to see the place again. He gathered some flowers
in the yard and when he came to the graves he stood a long time
silent, then walked around the long, wide grave and reverently
laid the flowers down and said low, “Old comrades, I aint never
forgot ye.”
The old folks had a little organ
and I sang “Just before the battle, mother,” “Tramp, tramp, the
boys are marching,” “Dixie” and “Annie Lyle” and lots of war
songs. Johnnie went to the spring that saw blood—old Shiloh
spring. He said it is changed and nearly dry.
We had a very pleasant drive back
and reached here just at twilight well pleased with out trip.
Your devoted daughter,
SALLIE
P.S. I forgot to say that Mr. Shaw,
the superintendent of cemetery, is a Southern born man, fought in
Yankee army. He had a sabre cut across his face, done by Forrest's
men at that very fight. If I had known it I would have said
“goody.”
{Notes}
1. John W.
Shaw, Superintendent, 17 Oct 1896-21 May 1905.
2. Isham G.
Harris (10 Feb 1818-8 July 1897), governor of Tennessee
(1857-1862) and later US Senator (1877-1897), was aide-de-camp to
General Johnston and was with him when he was wounded and died. In
April 1896, in a visit surrounded by much fanfare, Harris returned
to Shiloh to identify what he recalled to be the places where
Johnston was wounded and where he died. Harris died the month
before the Falkners's visit to Shiloh. Interestingly, Harris had
resided in Ripley, the home town of JWT and Sallie Falkner, prior
to the war.
In regard to
Harris's visit to Shiloh and the role of National Cemetery
Superintendent John W. Shaw, Stacy Allen comments: “Shaw was by
all accounts present the day of Harris' visit, but it was Maj.
David W. Reed, the secretary-historian of the Shiloh National
Military Park Battlefield Commission who actually rode onto the
field with Senator Harris. [Sallie] is correct that Harris was
extremely upset that a large gathering was present for his visit,
which was made for the purpose of assisting the park commission in
the relocation/confirmation of General Johnston's death site. As
superintendent of the National Cemetery, which was
administratively separate from the park at that time, Shaw would
not of had any business escorting the Senator onto the field,
while Battlefield Commission historian Reed did.
“I have no
doubt Shaw recounted the Harris story and she misunderstood his
involvement. It appears highly probable, based on Sallie's letter,
that Shaw was one of the members of the party that followed after
Reed and Harris at a respectful distance, while the two battle
survivors conducted their survey. We know after Harris relocated
the site and narrated the events surrounding Johnston's death on
April 6th to Reed, the major asked the Senator if he would take
time to tell his account to the party following. Harris agreed and
Reed called the party to come forward to hear the Senator tell the
tale again... This is the story Shaw appears to have related to
Sallie, and if he was with the party, it would have seemed he was
with Harris when the site was relocated.” (email, Allen to
Elliott, December 14, 2011)
3. Pittsburg
Landing, a small river town on the Tennessee River, was the
landing place of the Union forces in 1862. The name, “Battle of
Pittsburg Landing” is the northern name for the Battle of Shiloh.
The National Cemetery was established at Pittsburg Landing in 1866
and the site became the administrative center of the Shiloh
National Military Park.
4. Thomas C.
Hindman, Jr. commanded the 1st and 3rd Brigades of the 3rd Corps,
Army of the Mississippi, CSA. The Hindman name was certainly
familiar to Sallie Falkner. The Hindman family resided in Ripley
during the 1840s and 1850s before moving to Arkansas. On May 8,
1849, TC Hindman's brother, Robert Holt Hindman, was killed in a
fight with Sally's father-in-law, WC Falkner.
5. Civil
engineer Atwell Thompson began work at Shiloh on 1 May 1895 and
was assisted in part by MA Kirby as a transit man and WM Pride as
a rodman.
6. This
apparently alludes to Shiloh Spring, which is referred to by that
specific name later in the letter. According to Stacy Allen,
Shiloh Spring is “located immediately south of the [Shiloh
Methodist] church...with its outlet located at the base of the
slope of ridge the church resides on. This spring, which exits and
flows south, is located north of the double bridges on the Corinth
road, which traverse the confluence of the the east and middle
branches of Shiloh Creek. Shiloh Spring is visible from the road,
running parallel to it.” (email message, Allen to Elliott,
December 6, 2011.) Shiloh Spring should not be confused with the
nearby Rea Spring.
7. Regarding
the cemetery and the Rowseys, Stacy Allen comments: “The 'Mr.
Rowsey' she mentions is W. A. Rowsey, who owned battlefield
acreage and sold 89.65 acres of his land to the Commission, on
December 1, 1897, for inclusion in the park. Rowsey and his wife
owned what was a major portion of what had been the John C. Rea
homestead. The mass Confederate grave site she describes, is in
the central portion of the original Rea field (now located on the
south end of the field, which has been encroached upon by trees
since 1941) was located on Rowsey's land. The Rowsey's were paid
$1,200 for their farm acreage and its improvements.” (email, Allen
to Elliott, December 14, 1011)
Tippah County, MS
Confederates Page
© 2012, by
Melissa McCoy-Bell. All rights reserved.
Photo of cannons from the Ruggles's
Battery line taken by Joe N. McCoy, Sr. at Shiloh
National Military Park.
Photo of Dr.
John Murry taken in front of his home in Ripley, MS and provided
by Tippah County historian Tommy Covington.