Letters from the Front

Of the 100,000 soldiers who clashed at the April 1862 Battle of Shiloh, named after a local Methodist Episcopal meetinghouse, a quarter of them were killed, wounded or captured—about the same number of casualties as the Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War combined. Andrew DeVilbiss, a Confederate soldier, offered his perspective on the battle in a letter to his wife on April 16. (DeVilbiss self-censored his epithet concerning Northern soldiers. Excerpted from the audio version of Behind the Lines.)

Corinth, Miss.

Dear Mary

I hurriedly write you a few lines to let you know that I am well.…

I am afraid the wounded man may have been detained at the Hospital at Holly Springs and mails are uncertain. I am anxious you should hear from me. It is given up to be the hardest fought battle on the American Continent.

The Yankee camps, that we took were beautifully located with fine springs running down in branches, but on Monday morning I saw those branches having their waters all colored with blood. O Mary you could never form an idea of the horrors of actual war unless you saw the battlefields while the conflict is progressing. Death in every awful form, if it really be death, is a pleasant sight in comparison to the fearfully and mortally wounded. Some crying oh, my wife, my children, others my Mother, my sister, my brother etc. any and all of these terms you will hear while some pray to God to have mercy and the others die cursing the "Yankee sons of b_____s."

It is a grand and awful sight to and one that can never be forgotten.

My leg is yet a little black from the spent minnie ball that struck me, as I told you in my letter before. I am thankful to God for bringing me safely through. Go to the Church and thank him also, and pray for my preservation, and tell my boys to do the same. The man waits. Good bye. God bless you.

Andrew

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