Account of the Death of John Baker Thompson at Shiloh

The Death at Shiloh of John Baker Thompson

(This account is included in the book by his sister Susan R. (Thompson) Hull entitled Boy Soldiers of the Confederacy. The book was first published in 1905 and was reprinted by Eakin Press in 1998. Some in Thompson’s command were young men from St. John’s College, but the information on Thompson was attached at the end and seems to have been included because the author wanted something printed on her brother, rather than because it was consistent with the other material offered in the book. The letter is from a Captain Brooks and was in response to a request for information on Thompson by Lieutenant Carter Berkeley, a second cousin of General Robert E. Lee. Berkeley was a member of Garber's Company, Virginia Light Artillery (Staunton Artillery). This account is found on pages 229-231 of the book.

Historical Context:

The Battle of Shiloh

The First Day
April 6, 1862

With the loss of Forts Henry and Donelson in February, General Johnston withdrew his disheartened Confederate forces into west Tennessee, northern Mississippi and Alabama to reorganize. In early March, General Halleck responded by ordering General Grant to advance his Union Army of West Tennessee on an invasion up the Tennessee River.
Occupying Pittsburg Landing, Grant entertained no thought of a Confederate attack. Halleck's instructions were that following the arrival of General Buell's Army of the Ohio from Nashville, Grant would advance south in a joint offensive to seize the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, the Confederacy's only east-west all weather supply route that linked the lower Mississippi Valley to cities on the Confederacy's east coast.
Assisted by his second-in-command, General Beauregard, Johnston shifted his scattered forces and concentrated almost 55,000 men around Corinth. Strategically located where the Memphis & Charleston crossed the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, Corinth was the western Confederacy's most important rail junction.
On April 3, realizing Buell would soon reinforce Grant, Johnston launched an offensive with his newly christened Army of the Mississippi. Advancing upon Pittsburg Landing with 43,938 men, Johnston planned to surprise Grant, cut his army off from retreat to the Tennessee River, and drive the Federals west into the swamps of Owl Creek.
In the gray light of dawn, April 6, a small Federal reconnaissance discovered Johnston's army deployed for battle astride the Corinth road, just a mile beyond the forward Federal camps. Storming forward, the Confederates found the Federal position unfortified. Johnston had achieved almost total surprise. By mid-morning, the Confederates seemed within easy reach of victory, overrunning one frontline Union division and capturing its camp. However, stiff resistance on the Federal right entangled Johnston's brigades in a savage fight around Shiloh Church. Throughout the day, Johnston's army hammered the Federal right, which gave ground but did not break. Casualties upon this brutal killing ground were immense.
Meanwhile, Johnston's flanking attack stalled in front of Sarah Bell's peach orchard and the dense oak thicket labeled the "hornet's nest" by the Confederates. Grant's left flank withstood Confederate assaults for seven crucial hours before being forced to yield ground in the late afternoon. Despite inflicting heavy casualties and seizing ground, the Confederates only drove Grant towards the river, instead of away from it. The Federal survivors established a solid front before Pittsburg Landing and repulsed the last Confederate charge as dusk ended the first day of fighting.

The Second Day
April 7, 1862

Shiloh's first day of slaughter also witnessed the death of the Confederate leader, General Johnston, who fell at mid-afternoon, struck down by a stray bullet while directing the action on the Confederate right. At dusk, the advance division of General Buell's Federal Army of the Ohio reached Pittsburg Landing, and crossed the river to file into line on the Union left during the night. Buell's arrival, plus the timely appearance of a reserve division from Grant's army, led by Major General Lewis Wallace, fed over 22,500 reinforcements into the Union lines. On April 7, Grant renewed the fighting with an aggressive counterattack.
Taken by surprise, General Beauregard managed to rally 30,000 of his badly disorganized Confederates, and mounted a tenacious defense. Inflicting heavy casualties on the Federals, Beauregard's troops temporarily halted the determined Union advance. However, strength in numbers provided Grant with a decisive advantage. By midafternoon, as waves of fresh Federal troops swept forward, pressing the exhausted Confederates back to Shiloh Church, Beauregard realized his armies' peril and ordered a retreat. During the night, the Confederates withdrew, greatly disorganized, to their fortified stronghold at Corinth. Possession of the grisly battlefield passed to the victorious Federal's, who were satisfied to simply reclaim Grant's camps and make an exhausted bivouac among the dead.
General Johnston's massive and rapid concentration at Corinth, and surprise attack on Grant at Pittsburg Landing, had presented the Confederacy with an opportunity to reverse the course of the war. The aftermath, however, left the invading Union forces still poised to carry out the capture of the Corinth rail junction. Shiloh's awesome toll of 23,746 men killed, wounded, or missing brought a shocking realization to both sides that the war would not end quickly.
Source: "The Atlas of the Civil War" by James M. McPherson

“Havelock” is a reference to the British Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, who fought in the First Anglo-Burmese War, and the First Afghan War, and died during the Mutiny in India. He was known for his analytical brilliance and deep piety, having established Bible studies throughout his command. There is a statue to Havelock in Trafalgar Square in London, with an inscription reading: To Major General Sir Henry Havelock KCB and his brave companions in arms during the campaign in India 1857. Soldiers, your labours, your privations, your suffering and your valour, will not be forgotten by a grateful country. The nickname of “Havelock” for John Baker Thompson seems especially apt.

Captain Parks, writing to Lieutenant Berkeley, October, 14, 1901, says:

“In The Confederate Veteran I noticed your inquiring concerning the death of Col. I. B. Thompson, of the First Arkansas Regiment (Infantry), killed at Shiloh. I presume you mean Lieut.-Col. John Baker Thompson, of Little Rock, Ark., formerly of Virginia, who was some two years president of St. John’s College.

I dined with Colonel Thompson some time about the last of March or first of April, 1862, at the Gayoso Hotel, at Memphis, Tenn. At that time I was eighteen years of age and he twenty-four, and I was senior first lieutenant of heavy artillery, Hoadley’s Arkansas Battery, and shortly thereafter succeeded him as captain of said battery. After dinner, as I was to take passage on a Mississippi steamer, Colonel Thompson walked with me to the boat. On the way to the boat he was making many inquiries touching my captain’s proficiency in military tactics. I remember he asked me this question: ‘Where is the position of the lieutenant-colonel and major in time of action’? He was then a lieutenant-colonel and the impression was a great battle would soon be fought at or near Shiloh, his command being a part of the Confederate forces to be engaged in the expected battle._ Laughingly I said: ‘Why Colonel, ask me something not so easy.’ He said: ‘You do not know, sir; nor does your captain!’ Supposing I did know,” I answered, ‘as shown by diagram in Hardie’s ‘Tactics?’ ‘Ah,’ said he, “just as I expected. Your answer is incorrect, but I do not censure you, because the answer to that question is not in General Hardie’s ‘Tactics.’ He failed to translate that from the French tactics, of which I have a copy.’ He ten explained to me what the French tactics set forth—their places are in time of action on the right or left in line of battle 6 and 12 (or 15) paces, and explained the reasons therefore. Knowing him to be a brave and chivalrous Christian gentleman and scholar, I looked him straight in the eyes, thinking it could be only a few days until he should be in the impending conflict, and said as we were shaking hands to part: ‘You surely will not thus unnecessarily expose yourself in the coming engagement, will you, Colonel?’ He answered: ‘I will most certainly do my whole duty, sir!’ With a voice of sadness I said: ‘Then, my dear Colonel, I will never see you again. You will be killed in that battle. May God bless you! Farewell!’

The battle came. It proved to be one of the bloodiest and most important and withal, perhaps, the only battle fought out as planned, in the whole Civil War. Great indeed was the loss we sustained there. Perhaps the greatest loss was that of Albert Sidney Johnston, who was considered by President Jefferson Davis as one of the greatest general in America. There, as I had predicted, Colonel Thompson fell upon the right and at the head of his regiment. He lived four days, though pierced with four (some reported eight) balls in his breast.

Borne to the rear by his men, as he passed through the ranks he encouraged others, telling them how sweet it was to die for one’s country. The enemy remained in possession of the field, so that Colonel Thompson died within their lines. His grave was marked by his orderly, who had accompanied him, and after the war his remains were brought to his native State of Virginia and deposited in Hollywood Cemetery at Richmond.

In the cyclorama of the Battle of Shiloh the death of Colonel Thompson as is marked as one of the principal events. He was called the Havelock, or Christian soldier, and was the idol of his command.”