In the wee hours of April 6, a patrol composed of Companies B, E and H of the 25th Missouri Infantry made their way through their own picket line and passed into enemy territory in search of Confederates. One man present for duty, 22-year-old Pvt. Addison Newell Glenn, served in Company H. He and his fellow Missourians spotted a trio of gray horsemen about 5 a.m. and traded shots. About 15 minutes later in a field that belonged to farmer John C. Fraley, a skirmish erupted when soldiers from the 3rd Mississippi Infantry Battalion opened fire.

Depending on one’s point of view, the Missourians had either got more than they bargained for, or had started the Battle of Shiloh.

An officer in the 25th took an expected upbeat view in the regimental history, “We sounded their reveille by opening up fire on them, and it was not many minutes before that whole army of 65,000 men were in motion and the woods were full of them. We stood long enough for most of the men to use up their forty rounds of ammunition, which, with the hot volleys they turned loose on us, gave good and convincing warning to our slumbering army to ‘fall in’ on short notice.”

Glenn, an Ohio native who had moved to Missouri before the war, survived the battle. He went on to become a first lieutenant and ended his service in 1864 with the 1st Missouri Engineers. Back in Missouri, he married and raised a family in Mound City, where he entered business and served as the city’s postmaster. He died in 1905.

Co. Military images

https://www.militaryimagesmagazine-digital.com/2019/03/02/shiloh-spring-2019/