Shiloh - Continued

As we continue to observe the 150th anniversary of the Batle of Shiloh, I want to continue with my tribute to the two members of my family who participated in that infamous battle.

In the Military Annals of Tennessee, Confederate, by John M. Taylor, ed, by John B. Lindsley, 1886 (reprint 1974) Taylor described the contributions of the 27th Tennessee on page 422 and wrote of Major Love at Shiloh as "a gallant and affable gentleman, true soldier and grand officer, fell pierced in the neck by a shot."

Also, in a final report issued by captains and other officers in the Official Report of the War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies, I found a description of Samuel in Series I, Volume 10:

"After the enemy began to retreat from the battery one regiment bore to the right, under the command of Maj. Love, pouring a continuous fire into the enemy's ranks, until they were forced conceal themselves among and in the rear of their tents…”  He went on to say that “Maj. Love was killed, after commanding the regiment in a fearless manner during the day."

Samuel’s life ended at Shiloh, but his nephew, Richard, survived the battle and went on to fight in the Battle of Perryville in Kentucky, near Murphreesboro, Tennessee, where he was wounded in October of 1862. I found on the “Henderson County Sharpshooters” site at http://www.tnyesterday.com/books/gm/gm2-12.html that he was eventually captured in 1863 in Selmer, Tennessee, which is near the Mississippi home of the McKenzie family, who had taken him in to help tend his wounds. 

Richard lived until the age of 79, when he died on October 23, 1923.  He had married Ann Elizabeth McKenzie, who had helped to nurse him during his stay at their home. They made their home in Benton County, Mississippi, and had at least five children.  Sadly, only one lived to adulthood.  Richard Love, Jr. died tragically at the young age of 24.

My own grandfather, Richard Enloe Love, Sr., was very close to his uncle.  He and my father, RIchard Enloe Love, Jr., spent many happy days at the Love family home in Benton County.

Major Samuel T. Love never married, but that "gallant and affable gentleman" is remembered with love by his brother's descendants.

Richard and Ann Elizabeth McKenzie Love