Before the sun had well risen the battle began again, but now the
advantage was on the Federal side.
The Confederates fought bravely still. To and fro rode General
Beauregard cheering on his men, but step by step they were driven
backward, and by noon were in full retreat. Then as the Federals
realized that the day was theirs cheer after cheer went up from
their lines.
The second day's fighting had turned the battle of Shiloh into
a victory for the Union, although not a decisive one. On the same
day, however, the navy captured a strongly fortified island on the
Mississippi called Island Number Ten, with its garrison of seven
thousand men and large stores of guns and ammunition. This considerably
increased the force of the victory of Shiloh, and gave the Federals
control of the Mississippi Valley from Cairo to Memphis.
Meanwhile command of the lower Mississippi had also been wrested
from the Confederates by General Benjamin F. Butler in command of
the army, and Commander David Glasgow Farragut in command of the
fleet.
Captain Farragut who was already sixty-three at this time was a
Southerner by birth, but he had never faltered in his allegiance to
the Union. "Mind what I tell you," he said to his brother officers,
when they tried to make him desert his flag, "you fellows will
catch the devil before you get through with this business.
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