ding on the main Corinth road. On our arrival we were assigned
to the division of General B. M. Prentiss, and we at once marched
out and went into camp. About half a mile from the landing the road
forks, the main Corinth road goes to the right, past Shiloh church,
the other goes to the left. These two roads come together again
some miles out. General Prentiss' division was camped on this
left-hand road at right angles to it. Our regiment went into camp
almost on the extreme left of Prentiss' line. There was a brigade
of Sherman's division under General Stuart still further to the
left, about a mile, I think, in camp near a ford of Lick Creek,
where the Hamburg and Purdy road crosses the creek; and between the
left of Prentiss' and General Stuart's camp there were no troops. I
know that, for during the few days intervening between our arrival
and the battle I roamed all through those woods on our left,
between us and Stuart, hunting for wild onions and "turkey peas."

The camp of our regiment was about two miles from the landing. The
tents were pitched in the woods, and there was a little field of
about twenty acres in our front. The camp faced nearly west, or
possibly southwest.

I shall never forget how glad I was to get off that old steamboat
and be on solid ground once more, in camp out in those old woods.
My company had made the trip from St. Louis to Pittsburg Landing on
the hurricane deck of the steamboat, and our fare on the route had
been hardtack and raw fat meat, washed down with river water, as we
had no chance to cook anything, and we had not then learned the
trick of catching the surplus hot water ejected from the boilers
and making coffee with it. But once on solid ground, with plenty of
wood to make fires, that bill of fare was changed. I shall never
again eat meat that will taste as good as the fried "sowbelly" did
then, accompanied by "flapjacks" and plenty of good, strong coffee.
We had not yet got settled down to the regular drills, guard duty
was light, and things generally seemed to run "kind of loose." And
then the climate was delightful. We had just left the bleak, frozen
north, where all was cold and cheerless, and we found ourselves in
a clime where the air was as soft and warm as it was in Illinois in
the latter part of May. The green grass was springing fr