Federal army either captured or annihilated, as it assuredly would have been, was a mystery to me then, and is now.
During the afternoon, I succeeded in gaining a good deal of very important information from several prisoners, and particularly from a sergeant belonging to the twenty-seventh Illinois regiment. I did this by inducing him to believe that I was only in the Confederate army under compulsion, and that I intended to desert at the first opportunity. I got out of him pretty much everything he knew about the Federal situation, who the different commanders were, and even how the forces were posted; and, in full confidence that all I told him was the literal truth, he took out his diary and wrote a short note to his colonel, which he intrusted to me to deliver for him. From this prisoner I learned how desperate were the straits of the enemy, and how anxiously they were awaiting the arrival of Buell with re-enforcements, and I was, consequently, in despair, for I saw our brilliant victory already slipping from us, when General Beauregard, who had succeeded to the command after the death of Johnston, issued the order from his headquarters at the little Shiloh church, for us to halt in our advance, and to sleep on our arms all night, in stead of pursuing the routed enemy, and compelling them either to surrender or to take to the river, as we compelled them to do at Ball's Bluff.
A Fatal Mistake.
When I heard Beauregard's order, I felt that a fatal mistake was being committed; and, in utter desperation at the very thought of losing on the morrow all that we had gained by the most determined and desperate fighting through that long and bloody day, I could not resist the temptation of making an effort to find out for myself exactly what the situation within the enemy's lines really was, and was willing to run all the risks of being caught and shot as a spy, rather than to endure the suspense of a long night of uncertainty.
My station was with the advanced picket line, I having persuaded the captain to post me in a manner most favorable for carrying out my designs. I did not dare to tell him all I proposed to do, for fear that he would consider it his duty to prevent me, but gave him to understand that I intended, under cover of the darkness, to creep up as close as I could, with safety, to the Federal lines, with a view of trying to find out
