Existing comment:
C. S.
General Albert Sidney Johnston
Commanding the Confederate Army
Died Here at 2:30 P.M. April 6, 1862
Senator Isham G. Harris, who was Governor of Tennessee in 1862 and was serving as volunteer aid on the staff of Gen. Johnston at Shiloh, visited this field in 1896 for the express purpose of fixing the place where General Johnston fell. After careful examination of the ground, over which the Confederate advance was made, he came to the place now marked by the monument and said: "General Johnston was following the advance of Bowen's Brigade; he had sent the members of his staff to other parts of the field with orders; I was the last to leave him, with an order to put Statham's Brigade in motion across the Peach orchard. When I returned General Johnston was alone, sitting on his horse near a large oak tree. I saw him reel in the saddle and rode to his side and asked: ‘General are you hurt?' He replied: ‘Yes, I fear seriously.' I supported him in the saddle and guided the two horses to the ravine in rear; lifted him from the horse and placed him on the ground. He was unconscious and died in a few minutes, at 2:30 P.M."
Senator Harris fixed the place where the monument stands as the one where General Johnston was wounded, and the spot where this tablet stands as the place where Gen. Johnston died. |