A company of the 14th Wisconsin Infantry, held in reserve on a cold and rainy night, is ordered to advance to the front lines on the second day of fighting at the Battle of Shiloh on April 7, 1862.

At daylight we were sent forward. This route to the scene of strife opened strange scenes to our eyes, for our path lay over a portion of the ground so hotly contested the day before. We passed by and over the dead and wounded of Sunday — poor, ghastly, mangled forms of friend and foe, with their pale faces turned to view — poor fellows with their heads shot off, their vitals torn out, their limbs lost or mutilated, and some still writhing in feeble and speechless agony, who had lain through the long and stormy watches of that fearful night, with no one to care for or help them. It was a fearful, sickening sight, and many a strong, brave man turned his head aside.

Source: E.B. Quiner Scrapbooks: "Correspondence of the Wisconsin Volunteers, 1861-1865," Volume 5, page 147.

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