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82bea9b
|
I could see their faces then, and the army became what it really was: forty thousand men--they were young men mostly, lots of them even younger than myself, and I was nineteen just two weeks before--out on their first march in the crazy weather of early April, going from Mississippi into Tennessee where the Union army was camped between two creeks with its back to a river, inviting destruction.
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battle-of-shiloh
civil-war-western-theater
|
Shelby Foote |
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06296fa
|
That was when General Johnston rode up. He came right past where I was standing, a fine big man on a bay stallion. He had on a broad-brim hat and a cape and thigh boots with gold spurs that twinkled like sparks of fire. I watched him ride by, his mustache flaring out from his mouth and his eyes set deep under his forehead. He was certainly the handsomest man I ever saw, bar none; he made the other officers on his staff look small.
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battle-of-shiloh
civil-war-western-theater
|
Shelby Foote |
|
763b9b1
|
They will tell you Shiloh was no cavalry battle; the field was too cut-up with ravines and choked with timber for the usual mounted work. However, none of Forrest's men realized this at the time and we had our moments
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shiloh
battle-of-shiloh
civil-war-western-theater
|
Shelby Foote |
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c16fca2
|
"When General Johnston had heard them out, he drew himself up in the saddle, leather creaking, and said quietly: "Gentlemen, we shall attack at daylight tomorrow."
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battle-of-shiloh
civil-war-western-theater
|
Shelby Foote |
|
9005508
|
"He could do little. Brandy might help, he thought, but when he poured some into the hurt man's mouth it ran back out again. Presently a colonel, Johnston's chief of staff, came hurrying into the ravine. But he could do nothing either. He knelt down facing the general. "Johnston, do you know me? Johnston, do you know me?" he kept asking, over and over, nudging the general's shoulder as he spoke. But Johnston did not know him. Johnston was dead."
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army-of-tennessee
battle-of-shiloh
civil-war-western-theater
|
Shelby Foote |