150-Years-Ago FIRST SHILOH DISPATCHES WERE CONFUSING

Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston was
killed in action at the Battle of Shiloh.
(Library of Congress)

Richmond Dispatch.

Tuesday morning...April 8, 1862.

Gen. Albert Johnston.

          Announcement of the death of General Sidney Johnston, the gallant Commander of our army in the Southwest, who breathing out his brave soul in of Victory, will be received with throughout our country. He was senior officer of our army, and in all lights that make a great military commander he had no superior on this continent. He was born in Mercer county,Ky., in 1803, and was consequently at the time of his death 59 years of age. Educated at West Point, he entered the 6th infantry, and was sent to the West. During the Black Hawk he acted as Adjutant General, President Lincoln being at the time a captain of volunteers. At the close of the war he resigned his commission, and resided first in Missouri, then in Texas. War breaking out in the latter, he entered the Texan army as a private and rose to high distinction. He after filled the post of Secretary of War. After the annexation of Texas to the United States, Johnston raised a partisan troop, he commanded and accompanied General. Taylor to Monterey. At the close of Mexican war be returned to his plantation. Under Pierce, Mr. Jefferson Davis, as Secretary of War, made Johnston Colonel of the Second Cavalry, and he Urgently received the command of the Southwestern Military district. At the outbreak the war with Utah he was chosen to command the expedition which crossed the great plains. He continued to fill that post with ability — being, in fact, dictator in the country which he occupied — until the secession of the South, when he nobly abandoned Federal flag.
          Gen. Johnston was put in command of the Southern soldiers in the Department of Kentucky and Missouri, and invested with Penitentiary authority to control all the military operations in the West. His Kentucky nativity, and his thorough knowledge of the western country, coupled with his great ability, rendered him an especially appropriate election to the important position which held at the time of his death. Gen. Johnston was six feet one inch high, of large, body, wiry frame, quiet and unassuming manners, conspiring to form a person of imposing and attractive address. His brother, Josiah Stoddard Johnston, who was blown up on a steamboat on the Red River, La., and killed, was at the time in the U. S. Senate from that State, was the second of Mr. Clay in his duel with John Randolph, and was a man of the most eminent abilities.
          Peace to the ashes of the noble soldier. A grateful country will ever keep his memory green.

Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard mis-
takenly reported the Battle
of Shiloh a Confederate
victory based on the first
day's results.

The victory at Corinth.

          Our arms have just been crowned with a glorious and most important victory near Corinth, Mississippi. The particulars are yet meagre, but enough to satisfy us that the great Yankee army, under Buell, has been signally defeated by our brave Southern troops, led by Generals worthy of them and the cause. Our joy at the event is mingled with grief for the death of the commanding General, and the heavy loss of gallant Southern men who perished in the grand battle.
          Buell's army was large; no doubt exceeding our own in number. That General was esteemed one of the best in the Federal army. His role in what the Northern press and military authorities considered to be the last scene of the rebellion, was, with the co-operation of the gunboats, to crush us in the Mississippi Valley. The gunboats assisted him in his triumph to Nashville; but there in his further advance southwards, he was forced to leave them.--Our disaster at Donelson and our retreat from Bowling Green, through Nashville to the Tennessee river, filled the enemy with confidence, and he proceeded with eagerness to follow and strike a final blow upon what he considered a remnant of a disorganized army. But Johnston and Beauregard had made a wonderful use of the brief time allowed them. They organized and reinspired their troops, and rousing the spirit of the South added largely to their strength. Thus rapidly recruited, and with a large number of undisciplined men, they lost no time in attacking the enemy as soon as he came within striking distance. The attack was made on Saturday morning, and "after ten hours hard fighting," according to General Beauregard, "we gained a complete victory."
          This is, we suppose, the heaviest battle which has taken place during the war. There were likely more men on the enemy's side engaged than in any previous contest, and on ours we probably had a force equal to that at Manassas. It is supposed that more men were engaged at one time in the fight than were at any time actively engaged at Manassas.
           This glorious triumph over one of the best of Northern Generals, and over the best troops the Federalists have brought into the field, (those from the Northwest,) is an event of the most gratifying kind. It, indeed, breaks the back of the anaconda that was to crush the South. He is no longer a constrictor. His folds have no crushing power. But the snake is scotched, not killed. He may "doze and be himself again," if we relax a title of our energy. To render him powerless, we must fight, fight, fight! We must fight all the time, and never rest until the enemy is driven from the Southland.