Shiloh
General Beauregard was assembling a new army and requested Johnston to join him. Johnston marched his army south into Alabama while considering the offer. Along the way, some of the troops were issued new Enfield rifles, but the 19th Tennessee received reconditioned rifled muskets. Still, they were a vast improvement over the weapons that had contributed to their defeat at Fishing Creek.
Johnston decided to join Beauregard and so the 19th Tennessee, along with the rest of the brigade, left Decatur, Alabama, on March 15, 1862, and arrived in Corinth, Mississippi, on March 20. The combined forces of Beauregard and Johnston became the Army of Mississippi. When Crittenden was arrested for drunkenness, he was replaced by John C. Breckinridge, and the 19th Tennessee fell under his command.
Beauregard and Johnston hoped to liberate Middle and West Tennessee from Union control by attacking Major General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee at a riverboat port at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River near Shiloh Church. By attacking Grant before Buell's Army of the Ohio arrived, Beauregard hoped to defeat the two armies separately.
By the time the attack was supposed to begin on the morning of April 4, it was already twelve hours behind schedule and a cold rain began falling that turned the roads into muck, forcing Johnston to postpone until the next morning. The rain continued through the night and by the afternoon of April 5, Beauregard's army was still not properly deployed, forcing another postponement. They finally achieved their staging positions late that night.
The attack on the Federal camp opened at 5:00 A.M., but Col. George Maney's battalion, the 19th Tennessee, and General Nathan Bedford Forrest's cavalry were sent to scout the Confederate rear in case Buell attempted a landing there. By 11:00 A.M., Maney was convinced that they were safe from Buell, so he detached the 19th Tennessee and Forrest's cavalry from his command, and they returned together to the front.
As they approached Sarah Bell's Field, Maney was approached by Maj. Gen. Frank Cheatham, who ordered him to take men of his choice and attack a Federal battery near the George Manse cabin. Maney chose his 1st Tennessee Battalion, 9th Tennessee, 6th and 7th Kentucky Infantry, and the 19th Tennessee to attack the position known as "The Hornet's Nest," with the 19th deployed on the right of his line. Maney's forces attacked the Federal position at 2:30 that afternoon, with the 19th crossing a cornfield and approaching Manse's cabin. Federal fire from the position intensified with the 19th taking several casualties—among others, Colonel Cummings lost a finger, Maj. Abram Fulkerson was shot in the thigh, and captains "Zeb" Willett of Company B and Thomas Walker of Company I were killed.
The Confederates stayed on the attack—the 19th stormed the cabin and took the woods to the west of the field. The 19th was released and sent back to the brigade. By 4:00 P.M., they had rejoined, and Breckinridge was launching an attack against the left flank of the Hornet's Nest. By 5:00 P.M. the nest was withering; a half-hour later, it fell. As they disarmed the Federal troops, the 19th Tennessee exchanged their reconditioned muskets for the Yankee's .58 caliber Enfields. Lt. Colonel Walker received Brig. Gen. Benjamin M. Prentiss' sword in surrender.
That night, the 19th Tennessee ate well from the overrun Federal camps. Some bedded down in captured Federal tents and others on the ground, but they probably slept little that night. Union gunboats fired shells into the Confederate lines starting a brushfire that burned a considerable amount of ground where the dead and wounded still lay, and nature unleashed another deluge about 10:00 P.M. that lasted until 3:00 in the morning. Meanwhile, Buell's rested army landed and reinforced Grant.
Breckinridge had managed to keep his men assembled through the night, but many of the other regiments were scattered, which would cause considerable command and control problems the next morning. With the battle engaged, Grant's somewhat recovered army was exerting considerable pressure on the Confederate left flank to the west. Breckinridge had assembled his men and moved towards the Hornet's Nest, with the 19th Tennessee posted in the woods on the center-right of his line, where they began taking considerable artillery fire. Federal troops advanced from the woods near Bloody Pond toward the Manse cabin, but were met by intense artillery and musket fire from Bowen's and Stratham's brigades, including the 19th Tennessee. The Confederates counterattacked, but Federal artillery stopped their advance.
The Yankees pressed again, broke the Confederate line, and captured a battery of Washington artillery. The Rebels rallied in the woods and charged again to recapture the cannons with the Crescent Regiment of Louisiana engaging the Yankees hand-to-hand. Breckinridge asked who could aid them, and Lt. Colonel Francis Walker replied that the 19th Tennessee could. The 19th charged into the fighting with other elements of Stratham's brigade and pushed the Federals back, retaking the artillery battery. The 19th Tennessee Infantry Reenactors have an emblem of crossed cannon barrels on their regimental flag, signifying this action.
By noon, the Confederates were losing momentum and their lines starting to give way. Near Duncan Field, the 19th watched the Federals approach and opened fire on a regiment that had remained in column formation, and drove them back. William Tecumseh Sherman described the shooting as "the severest musketry fire I ever heard." The Federals counterattacked and pushed Breckinridge's corps from Duncan Field back toward Shiloh Church. By 2:00 P.M., the entire Confederate line was collapsing in the face of superior numbers and better rested and supplied Federal troops. Breckinridge's corps organized a rear guard action and held the Federals off, allowing the Army of Mississippi to safely retreat.
The next day, the corps moved to Mickie's Farm near Corinth and held the position, allowing Beauregard to organize a defense near the Mississippi town. The Battle of Shiloh was over, but at a cost of 23,000 combined casualties. Beauregard and, likewise, the 19th Tennessee suffered about 25 percent losses, from which the regiment never fully recovered.
A journalist from New Orleans wrote, "after Shiloh the South never smiled again."
The 19th Tennessee spent the next few weeks at Corinth in provost duty and reorganizing the regiment to compensate for their losses.
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