noon
Officers shouted , `` Fall in ! '' Soldiers , waking from sound sleep , buckled on their cartridge-boxes , seized their guns , and took their places in the ranks before they were fairly awake . The drummers beat the long-roll , the buglers sounded the signal for saddling horses , the artillery-men got their guns ready , cavalry-men leaped into their saddles , baggage-wagons went thundering towards the river . There was a volley of musketry , and then a deeper roar from the artillery , and the terrible contest of the day began , which became more terrific from morning till noon , from noon till night , with deafening rolls of musketry , with the roaring of a hundred cannon , with the yelling of the Rebels and the cheering of the soldiers of the Union , as the tempest surged through the forest , up and down the ravines , around Shiloh church , in the old cotton-fields , up to the spring where the country people were accustomed to eat their Sunday dinners , down to the Tennessee River , where the gunboats were waiting for the hour when they could open with their great guns . Paul was in the storm , riding through the leaden hail which fell all around him , pattering upon the dead leaves , cutting down the twigs of the hazel-bushes , and scarring the trees , -- riding along the lines carrying messages to General Sherman , who was fighting like a tiger by the church , with the bullets piercing his clothes , -- to McClernand , who was near by , -- to Wallace , to Prentice , to Hurlburt , to Stuart , -- riding where shells were bursting , where solid shot cut off great branches from the trees , splintered the trunks , ploughed the ground , whirled men and horses into the air , tearing them limb from limb , and then passed away with weird howlings . He breathed the thick smoke as it belched from the cannon 's mouth , and felt the hot flashes on his face . He stood beside his commander , General Grant , while waiting for orders , and beheld him when tidings of disaster were brought in , -- that General Prentice and hundreds of his men were captured , -- that the line was broken , and the men were falling back .