l6 JOHN WESLEY POWELL. 



the battery went up the Tennessee, it had 156 stalwart men; and 

 a finer lot of horses was never, perhaps, attached to a battery. 

 Although this company had been organised but a few weeks, it 

 went into park on the bluffs above Pittsburgh Landing, a grand 

 body of men, well drilled, and with an equipment complete and in 

 the best possible condition. 



A week later everything was sadly changed. It was within a 

 month of the young captain's marriage that the battle of Shiloh or 

 Pittsburgh Landing took place, and in it his battery played an im- 

 portant and heroic part. Most of the horses were lost, many of 

 the men were killed, still more wounded, and Captain Powell had 

 his right arm shot off. 



[Capt. Powell was crippled for life, and the stump of his right 

 arm was subject to incessant pain until in his advanced years, I 

 believe in 1898, a successful operation on the terminating nerves 

 gave him relief ; and henceforth he felt as if he had been regene- 

 rated and had received back his original vigor. 



In connection with the loss of his right arm, I wish to record 

 an incident which is typical of American conditions. In the same 

 battle of Shiloh, a Southern officer, Col. Charles E. Hooker, after- 

 wards Member of Congress from Mississippi, lost his left arm, and 

 after the war the warriors met and became friends. It happened 

 that their hands were of the same size, and henceforward whenever 

 either purchased a pair of gloves he sent the unnecessary one to 

 his enemy; the two veterans ever after remained friends.] 1 



The officer left in command probably could not muster more 

 than half of the number that had gone up to Pittsburgh Landing. 

 His [Captain Powell's] young wife was on the field at headquar- 

 ters when he was wounded, and she then and there enlisted for 

 the war, General Grant giving her a "perpetual pass" to follow 

 the army and thus enable her to act as right arm for her husband. 

 Otherwise he would have had to leave the service, and that would 

 have been a great loss, as his skill as an engineer and artillerist 

 ranked high ; and General McPherson relied upon his knowledge 

 most implicitly; placing him always with his dogs of war in the 

 most responsible positions. 



Mrs. Powell nursed her husband back to life in the hospital; 

 and he did not hesitate to say that he believed he "owed his life 

 to his wife's presence, fortitude, and unwearied devotion, united to 

 her skilful nursing." 



In the summer of 1862 the captain returned to the command 



1 The passage in brackets was inserted by the editor, on the authority of Major Powell. 



