ded, and were filled by Farragut and
Porter to whom in the judgment of the Department special and emphatic
honor was due. The navy had conquered its own place in the public
regard, and had performed an inestimable service in the contest
against the rebellion.

THE DESPERATE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

The brilliant success in the early spring, both of the army and
navy, was unfortunately not continued in the subsequent months.
General Grant, after the fall of Nashville, marched southward to
confront the army of General A. S. Johnston, and on the 6th and
7th of April a terrible battle was fought at Pittsburg Landing on
the Tennessee River. The battle was originally called by that name
in the annals of the Union, but the title of "Shiloh" given to it
by the Confederate authorities, is the one more generally recognized
in history. In the first day's engagement the Union army narrowly
escaped a crushing defeat; but before the renewal of the contest
on the following morning General Buell effected a junction with
the forces of General Grant, and the two, united, recovered all
the lost ground of the day before and gained a substantial victory
for the Union, though at great cost of life. The Union army lost
some eighteen hundred men killed and nearly eight thousand wounded.
The Confederate loss was not less. There is no doubt that General
Grant was largely outnumbered on the first day, but after the
junction of Buell he probably outnumbered the Confederates. Sixty
thousand was perhaps the maximum of the Union forces on the second
day, while the Confederate army, as nearly as can be ascertained,
numbered fifty thousand. One great event of the battle was the
death of Albert Sidney Johnston, a soldier of marked skill, a man
of the highest personal character. Jefferson Davis made his death
the occasion of a special message to the Confederate Congress, in
which he said that "without doing injustice to the living, our loss
is irreparable." The personal affliction of Mr. Davis was sore.
The two had been at West Point together, and had been close friends
through life. William Preston Johnston, son of the fallen General,
a young man of singular excellence of character and of most attractive
personal traits, was at the time private secretary to Mr. Davis.
He has since been widely known in the South in connection with its
educational progress.

Deep anxiety had preceded the battle throughou