larize would seem invidious; suffice it to say the officers, with on or two exceptions, are deserving the highest praise. The men were at all times cool and as free from fear or confusion as if they were on dress-parade.

The list of casualties,which I appended below, fully attests the severity of the contest.

The following is the number of killed, wounded, and missing in the two days' engagement:*

Killed ................................................... 64

Wounded .................................................. 100

Missing .................................................. 47

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Total ................................................. 211

Total number engaged less than 650.

I have the honor to be, yours, respectfully,

JOHN WILLIAMS,

Captain, Commanding Regiment.

Numbers 68. Report of Colonel David Stuart, Fifty-fifth Illinois Infantry, commanding Second Brigade.

HEADQUARTERS SECOND BRIGADE, FIFTH DIVISION,
Camp, Shiloh, April 10, 1862

SIR: I have the honor to submit a report of the part taken by the Second Brigade of General Sherman's division in the engagement of the 6th and 7th instant.

The brigade, composed of the Fifty-fifth Illinois, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Malmborg; the Fifty-fourth Ohio, Colonel T. Kilby Smith, and the Seventy-first Ohio, Colonel R. Mason, occupied the extreme left of the advance, General Prentiss' division on my right and front. In obedience to General Sherman's orders I kept a company at and in the vicinity of the ford of Lick Creek, on the Hamburg road, and another on and in the vicinity of the Back road (coming in on the hills opposite and southeast of the encampment,),as picket guards, and on his order on Saturday sent six companies out on the Hamburg road, with a squadron of cavalry sent forward by General McClernand, to reconnoiter beyond Hamburg. The disposition of my pickets was reported to and approved by General Sherman. At 7.30 o'clock on Sunday morning I received a verbal message from General Prentiss that the enemy were in his front in force. Soon after my pickets sent in word that a force, with artillery, were advancing on the Back road. In a very short time I discovered the Pelican flag advancing in the rear of General Prentiss' headquarters. I dispatched my adjutant (Loomis), of the Fifty-fourth Ohio, to General Hurlbut, who occupied with his division the rear in the center, to inform him that General Prentiss' left was turned, and to ask him to advance his forces. The reply was that he would advance immediately. Within fifteen minutes General Hurlbut sent forward a battery, which took position on the road immediately by Colonel Mason's (Seventy-first) headquarters. A regiment (the Forty-first Illinois, as I remember) formed in line on the right of this battery. Observing these dispositions, and expecting that

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*But see revised statement, p. 103

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17 R R-VOL X