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- [00:00]
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- [00:42]
Holly Fry
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- [01:16]
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- [02:14]
Ulysses S. Grant
Mount McGregor, New York, 1885 At a quiet, rustic cottage nestled among pine trees, the late afternoon sun slants across the porch, catching the silver in Ulysses S. Grant's beard. A blanket covers his legs. A knit cap warms his head in his right hand, a knife sharpened pencil moves steadily across a sheet of paper as he writes, carefully recounting events from 40 years earlier. The Battle of Shiloh or Pittsburgh Landing, he wrote, has been more persistently misunderstood than any other engagement during the entire rebellion. Grant's memoirs, begun the previous fall in New York City, would grow into a two volume, 360,000 word work, an astonishing feat completed in just 11 months. It was intended not only to detail his role in the war, but to explain the broader moral purpose of the conflict. Shiloh would be the battle that shattered Grant's illusions about the war. Like so many in the North, Grant had expected a swift Union victory. But in that wide clearing in western Tennessee, hemmed in by trees, he witnessed relentless close quarters combat from dawn until dark as Confederate troops hurled themselves against Union lines. By the second day's end, the field was so thick with the dead that it was said one could walk in any direction, stepping only on bodies, never touching the ground. As Grant reviewed his sentences, he thought back to those horrendous days. Shiloh had made it clear this would be no gentleman's war. It would be total.
- [04:11]
Don Wildman
Dear listeners, glad you could join us. This is American History hit and I'm Don Wildman. Well, today we resume our march. We started with the episodes on Fort Sumter and Bull Run. Undertaking a chronological campaign telling the histories of the major battles of the American Civil War ought to take just about as long as it took to fight the war. But it's worth it. Considering the grave consequences and supreme sacrifices made, the Civil War would recreate the United States of America. Continuing our great experiment, the war and its aftermath, often called the nation's second founding, shifted the very ground the nation stood upon. So we think it's vital to understand the very grounds those battles were fought upon and why they happened. For now we find ourselves in the early days, spring of 1862, out in the western theater where the Tennessee river wends its way south past Hardin County, Tennessee, about 100 miles east of Memphis and 20 miles north of Mississippi. These western regions, they were called in those days because that was the west, were considered vital to both the Union and the Confederates, since occupying them meant controlling the vital water routes that ran through them. The Mississippi river, the Ohio, the Tennessee. So many supplies and troop movements would be delivered by these waterways. So accordingly, a series of high stakes battles would be fought at profound cost of men and treasure. April 6 and 7, 1862, was the battle of Shiloh. And to help us understand this pivotal confrontation, we are joined by historian Dr. Timothy B. Smith, who teaches history at the University of Tennessee at Martin, author of a number of books including Corinth, 1862, Siege, Battle, Occupation and Shiloh Conquer or Perish, both from the University Press of Kansas. Hello, Professor Smith. Timothy, nice of you to do this.
- [05:58]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Hello. Thank you for having me.
- [06:00]
Don Wildman
Greetings. Let's start with the macro viewpoint of the war to this point back east. As I mentioned, there had been the battle of Bull Run in Virginia near the capital, a debacle for the Union. But since then, there's Been improvements for them, most notably out West. Can you bring us up to date at this point in the war?
- [06:19]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Sure. At the time of Shiloh, we're only a year in. You know, if you compare that maybe with World War II or the Revolution or something like that, this is very, very early in, in their stages. So April 1862, there hasn't been a lot of just what I would call huge battles, maybe Napoleonic style battles. Yeah, you've got Bull Run and no offense to Bull Run folks, Fort Donelson, Wilson Creek, things like that. But these are fairly small revolutionary type battles. Revolutionary War type battles, Mexican War, you know, War of 1812 size battles. And as a result, when you reach shallow and you have this massive battle, this is kind of the beginning of the war a little bit. It's when the thing is getting serious, it starting to move past the early moves, the initial feeling each other out, the initial mobilization type stuff. And what leads to shallow, of course, is the Union forces are moving southward along the Tennessee river, trying to pierce this Confederate defensive line in the west that stretches all the way from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi river to cross all the way to Indian territory in fact. And the Union forces move southward, Confederates are trying to bend their port railroads and some of those are near shallow. And that's what brings the armies to that battlefield.
- [07:40]
Don Wildman
It's really about transportation, isn't it? It's the rivers and the. And the railways that are out there. When I call it the West, I should really clarify this for some of the audience. We're talking about as far as western Kentucky and Western Tennessee. That is the west as defined by the Mississippi river. Really in those days. How is my description of the stakes out there at that time?
- [08:01]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Spot on. There are different debates over what constitutes the Western theater. Some include the Trans. Mississippi is the Western theater. A lot of historians prefer to call this area Western Kentucky, Western Tennessee, Middle Tennessee. Northern Mississippi is really the Confederate heartland, which kind of gets at the importance and the significance here. All these rivers, all these railroads. I used to joke about the movie trains, planes and automobiles. This is literally railroad steamboat wagons that connect the two. So the Industrial Revolution has, has had a huge impact on warfare. You see this not just in America, the Crimean War before this, somewhat in the Mexican War as well in America, but the Civil War, you know, you get into the debate of the first modern war, all that kind of stuff. I happen to believe every war is the most modern war at that point. There is no first modern war. But you know, the Industrial Revolution absolutely has a Significant effect on the Civil War. And we see that vividly at Shiloh.
- [08:59]
Don Wildman
Yeah, this will be the battle that gives rise to several people, but most notably Ulysses S. Grant. Uh, this is where he starts to really distinguish himself as a leader. He's under a man named General Henry Halleck. Can you talk about that man? Because he doesn't get much attention.
- [09:14]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
He doesn't get a lot of attention, and rightly so. He's not very good. He is America's military theorist. He takes the old Napoleonic Jomini mindset and brings that to the fighting men of America. Wrote the book, for instance, you know, the elements of military art and science that a lot of American officers use. So he is very set in his ways, very rigid in doing things the way Napoleon would have done it. And as a result, he doesn't turn out to be a very good general. Grant, you know, that relationship. You always talk about jealousy and. And all of that. I'm not so sure it's jealousy. Halleck biographer John Marsalek basically says that the two spoke two different military languages. Alec just didn't like Grant because he didn't do things by the book. He was kind of sloppy. He was not, you know, a rigid, by the book kind of guy. Just tell you one interesting story real quick. When Halleck shows up after shot, he gets all over Grant for fighting this battle and for not being prepared. You're not ready to fight another battle if we have to, all that kind of stuff. And at one point, he tells him, I'm getting letters from your officers, and they are not folding their letters correctly. You have your officers fold your letters correctly by military style. And I'm sure Grant's thinking, how are we going to win this war if we don't fold our letters correctly? You know, so that illustrates the difference kind of between the mentalities of Halleck and Grant.
- [10:35]
Don Wildman
I said the same thing to my wife about the napkins last night at dinner. It's important to have discipline. So let's talk about Shiloh as a location. As I mentioned earlier, there's a push down from the north, Fort Donelson. Those battles in the days earlier are about the Union pushing down what will eventually become Vicksburg. I mean, the idea here is to take control primarily of the Mississippi river, but many other. Other places as well. And the railroads. What made Shiloh an important location or Pittsburgh landing just north of it?
- [11:05]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Well, as they say in real estate, location, location, location. Of course, yes. Shiloh is very much part of the Mississippi Valley campaign. Starting up at Belmont, Fort Henry, Fort Donaldson all the way through Vicksburg. Shiloh, in fact, is the largest battle in the Mississippi valley campaign. So it holds that importance. But what makes the ground at Shiloh itself important is basically the landing on the river itself. There's nothing really at Shiloh that makes it important in terms of people saying, okay, we're going to fight a battle here. In fact, Shiloh was never intended to be a battlefield. It's intended to be a staging area for further Union operations southward against Corinth, Mississippi and those important railroads. So the Union army will camp there largely because in the spring of 1862, the river, Tennessee river has risen so much that most of the landings up and down the river are underwater. Pittsburgh landing being the one or two there, there are a couple others around, but the one good one that provides access not only to Corinth, but also good camping areas, good fields to drill the troops, all of that. So the lead elements that are exploring this area figure out this is a good place to camp, this is a good place to land the army. And that's the reason the Union army camps there in the days and weeks before the battle. Of course, the Confederates realize, okay, we've got to do something about this incursion. And that's why they march northward from Corinth to attack the Union forces there. So that's why we wind up with a battle there.
- [12:34]
Don Wildman
It's an interesting, very specific contrast because you have the Union bringing in troops via the river, you know, through ferry boats coming down the Tennessee. The Confederates, on the other hand, have the railroad lines. And that, as we say, is a big hub in Corinth. So that's where the federals are heading towards. But that's the difference in their abilities to supply these troops. Grant is camped, as you say, at Pittsburgh landing, which is sort of northish of where fight will take place. He's about 40,000 troops, as I say, an eye on Corinth, Mississippi. He awaits reinforcements from the east under a guy named general Don Carlos Buell. Well, this will figure in prominently in this thing. The notion they have is what's very colorfully called the Anaconda plan, this strangling of the South. How far are they from making that happen?
- [13:20]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Well, when Phil Scott, of course, the author of the Anaconda plan is ridiculed at the beginning of the war, that's going to take way too long, way too many troops. It's going to be a three month war and the thing's going to be done. Well, the basic formula that they win the war with after four years is basically the Anaconda plan. And so here, a year into the war, they are working through the process of strangling the south, as an Anaconda will do. It takes a while to build ship to implement the blockade. Of course, one of the major tenets of the Anaconda plan is to open the Mississippi river, which, again, shallow is very much a part of that. It's convenient the way these rivers. You know, we talk about the Industrial Revolution and the rivers and the railroads and all of that. The rivers really play a more important role, at least early in the Western theater, than the railroads do, because they are pointed directly, like daggers into the heart, this heartland of the Confederacy. And as the Federals move southward, they're trying to move southward along the Mississippi river, but they are blocked at Columbus, Kentucky. But conveniently, they can step over a hundred miles to the east, move straight down the Tennessee river, and get where they need to go out, flanking Columbus, and then step back over to the Mississippi and continue on down to Vicksburg. So the rivers are set up perfectly for their operations in the west, and it sets up perfectly to implement this Anaconda plan.
- [14:45]
Don Wildman
And it's another one of the advantages they have a better navy, lots more boats to do this with. Hundreds of ferry boats will be required. I mean, that's the kind of scale we're talking about with these troops. Meanwhile, Southern forces are commanded by General Albert Sidney Johnson, who they are, as we say, concentrated in Corinth, regrouping after a number of Union victories to the North. He's seeking a strike attack before Grant's reinforcements arrive. That's key to this timing, isn't it?
- [15:11]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
It is. A lot of Civil War actions depend on speed and surprise. The effort is to surprise the enemy, get in the first punch, sucker punch kind of kind of thing. And that's not. You don't need a military academy education to figure that out. If you're going to fight the bully in the third grade, you want to get the sucker punch in. It's not anything new to military history or anything like that. In fact, what Johnson is doing, since Buell is coming in from Nashville and Johnson realizes we're going to be way out, we're already outnumbered, pretty much, at least. Parody. And when Buell gets here, we're going to be way outnumbered, and so we better fight one at a time. So it's the classic old Napoleonic central position where you get in between the two, you drive a wedge of troops, your army in between two Separate enemy forces and you fight one at a time. And that's exactly what Johnson is trying to do. It's a gamble. He says, we got to, you know, we will conquer or perish. This is do or die. And he decides to fight Grant, hoping to rid himself of Grant before Buell arrives.
- [16:12]
Don Wildman
I got one more question before we talk about this battle. William Tecumseh Sherman figures into this team here. This is the beginning of what will play out to be Sherman's march on Atlanta. That's a ways away, but, I mean, this is how these chess pieces are putting into play. How much does Grant rely on Sherman at this point?
- [16:30]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Grant relies on Sherman a great deal. A lot of historians talk about the. That fact, friendship that is born at Shiloh. In fact, it goes back a little earlier than that. Sherman is. Is supplying Grant during the Fort Donaldson campaign, sending him troops, sending him supplies. So they lean on each other then. I think it is, though, at Shiloh, where, you know, this friendship is born in fire almost, they really start to depend on each other. It may be overplayed a little bit. I think Sherman, if you know about Sherman, he's kind of a wily guy. You know, I'm convinced that he. Even as late as the summer of 1862 and maybe a little bit later, when Grant is kind of under cloud a little bit, Grant stays under cloud a lot. He's still hedging his bets. He's very friendly with Halleck, writing Halleck just glorious letters. He's very friendly with Grant. And so it's almost like Sherman is saying, okay, I'm going to bide my time, be friendly with both until I see which one I need to hook my wagon to, you know, to go farther. But very much developing a friendship here with Grant. And a lot of that comes out of shallow.
- [17:32]
Don Wildman
Sherman does not get the attention he deserves, in my opinion. I mean, people do not talk enough. He's got a lot of statues, nice ones, and a tank that's named after him. But he is critical to all of this. It always surprises me he wasn't running for president one day.
- [17:45]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Of course, he has that famous saying that if nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve. He doesn't want to. To get involved in the politics, and I can certainly understand that. And he probably is the kind that would have made a much better dictator than president.
- [17:59]
Don Wildman
There you go. I hope we've established that the stakes are high here. There's no outplan for. For Grant. So that's key here, you know, he's backed up by the river, the Snake Creek to the north and the Tennessee to his east. This has to work out and so or he spent a lot of his army on this thing. So let's talk about this battle. It happens over a period of two days primarily, as we say, April 6th and 7th, 1862. Sidney Johnson has brought his troops within four miles southwest of Pittsburgh, landing on the Tennessee. But his idea of a surprise has been delayed by the weather. There's been a lot of rain, slog in the roads. Still, he launches an attack on April 6. How much of a surprise was this? Or is that a myth?
- [18:40]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Well, depends on your definition of surprise. Yes, the Confederate army is delayed. We talk about the industrial revolution and the steamboats and the railroads. All of those work fine during the rainy wet weather, muddy and all that. It breaks down, of course, in between the two, where you have to go back to the old fashioned wagons and horses, you know, moving same way Julius Caesar did 1862 years before kind of thing, you know. So it does delay the Confederate advance. Borgar, the Confederate second in command, is absolutely convinced that the enemy will know they're there, says, let's turn around and go back to Corinth. Johnson says, no, we're going to do this. We came. This is the great gamble. We have to fight Grant before Buell arrives. So they launched the attack and miraculously, it is more of a surprise than Beauregard predicted. But again, their definitions of surprise, strategically or operationally, it is very much a surprise. No Federal woke up the morning of April 6th thinking that they were going to fight the largest battle in American history that morning, that it was that much of a surprise. Now you get down to tactical level on the battlefield itself. The Federals are of course, not expecting to fight the battle, but there is a patrol that's sent out to, you know, a skittish Union brigade commander sends a patrol out and that uncovers the Confederate advance about a mile out from the camps. And as a result, they have warning and they are in line of battle, ready to meet the enemy as they're coming toward their camps.
- [20:08]
Don Wildman
Foreign.
- [20:17]
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- [20:57]
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- [21:50]
Holly Fry
Our Skin Tells a Story Join me, Holly Fry, and a slate of incredible guests as we are all inspired by their journeys with psoriasis. Along with these uplifting and candid personal histories, we take a step back into the bizarre and occasionally poisonous history of our skin and how we take care of it. Whether you're looking for inspiration on your own skincare journey or are curious about the sometimes strange history of how we treat our skin, you'll find genuine, empathetic, transformative conversations here on our skin. Listen to our skin on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [22:29]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
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- [22:31]
Don Wildman
On Amazon Music with your prime membership.
- [22:34]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
- [22:42]
Don Wildman
And they meet them where they were camped, which as we say, was the Shiloh. Shiloh is a name of a church. I want to make people understand. It translates in Hebrew as a place of peace. So much for that. But the real key strategic point to make at this beginning is that it's not where the Federals plan to stage this and so they are catching up on this thing real fast. Tell me about the first day. How does that go?
- [23:04]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Well, yes, it's never intended to be a battlefield. It's a staging area. But I've always said if you have to get surprised and caught and ambushed and play the defensive, Grant couldn't have picked a better place to do it because of the terrain in the battlefield and so essentially the way the battle will play out on the first day and it's a mirror image on the second day. But the first day Grant will fall back gradually from creek system to creek system, using those as defensive areas in an effort basically the old cliche is to trade space for time. So he's falling back, trying to eat up daylight. He'll hold the initial major line at the initial camps at Shiloh Church, for instance. Then he'll fall back to the major line, where we get the famous areas such as the Hornet's Nest and the Peach Orchard and the crossroads, Bloody Pond, all of that. Eventually, he'll fall back behind another set of creeks called Dill Branch and Tillman Branch. These are huge ravines that the Confederates will have to go through if they're going to attack. The last line of defense. It's a much more compact line that allows Grant to defend this position. The reason the line is there, however, is that he still will hold Pittsburgh Landing as well as the South Snake Creek Bridge on opposite sides of the battlefield. And that's the key. He's fallen back, trading space for time, eating up daylight so that reinforcements can arrive. And of course, Buell will come in at Pittsburgh Landing. Lou Wallace will march in over the Snake Creek Bridge. And so by the time nightfall comes and those reinforcements start coming in, Grant is in a position to win the battle. A lot of historians say he's won it at this point. He could have still lost it. He could have, you know, pulled a McClellan and retreated and thrown it away. But the decision to stay and fight a second day gives Grant the victory.
- [24:55]
Don Wildman
That's the key point here, isn't it? Taking note of the fact that you have now a general who's not only willing to stand and fight, which, you know, famously comes out of this, out of Lincoln's mouth, but also has the strategic mind to have chosen a field of battle. Well, it wasn't supposed to be a field of battle, but he's always looking at how to defend. And so he's really playing chess as he falls back. I mean, you watch materials online, and it looks like it's a terrible day. It's like, oh, my God, the union line is just collapsing. But indeed, he was really playing a game of chess, wasn't he? He was waiting for those reinforcements to arrive.
- [25:27]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Absolutely. He knows what he's doing. He lets his generals fight the tactical action while he gives the overall direction, and he'll trade space for time. And you get that very famous incident, of course, when Sherman, a lot of others, are counseling retreat during the night. Let's put the river between us and them. We're beaten. And so Sherman comes to Grant's headquarters. And Sherman, of course, enters a room mouth first kind of thing. He just blurts Out. Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day today. And Grant responds, yeah, lick them tomorrow, though. And so he chooses to stay and fight. And this kind of brings out, for the first major time, Fort Donaldson. Notwithstanding this, Grant, under pressure that he's not going to give up, he's not going to give in like so many other Union generals did and hightail it northward. He's. He's going to stay and fight it out.
- [26:15]
Don Wildman
You chomp enough cigars, you can get through anything. Sidney Johnson is a key casualty in the. On the Confederate side. That general is shot in the knee, bleeds out and dies. Major loss for the Confederacy. They never replace him. He was one of those famous Mexican American War generals, as was Grant. So many of them came out of that time, didn't they?
- [26:35]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Lots of them came out of the Mexican War and will learn a lot from the Mexican. This is the only experience, really, that they have in the field. In the field. And, you know, the field experience. This is. This is why we send, you know, education majors out to do student teaching to get some experience. And this is their student teaching in the Mexican War. And for instance, Grant learns. He watches Zachary Taylor and he watches Winfield Scott. And he takes the best of both. He takes Zachary Taylor and kind of his nonchalant and, you know, don't worry about pomp and circumstance and all that. But out of Winfield Scott, who's very much pomp in circumstance, he takes kind of the manner of fighting, flanking, outmaneuvering the enemy, that types of. So Grant learns a lot. Sidney Johnson does fight in the Mexican War, particularly at Monterey. Fortunately, Johnston doesn't learn from Mexican War experience and proves to be, I think, a lesser general. He's just not really fitted to be a good general. You have to have a little bark and a little bite to make people do things that you need them to do. I like Albert Sidney Johnson. I think he's just too nice of a guy. He's too lean, too methodical, probably, to be a good commander. And so when he's killed at Shiloh, I'm not sure that his death at Shiloh really makes that much difference at the battle itself due to the terrain situation that the Confederates are facing. But I think it does have a larger impact later in the war because, as you say, nobody really ever replaces him in a way that everybody takes the new commander to be the head and shoulders above everybody else. In fact, what they wind up doing is promoting one of the corps commanders from shallow above the rest of them, which institutes A lot of jealousy. And that's Braxton Bragg, of course. And the three main enemies that Bragg later has are the three other corps commanders at Shiloh that didn't get the promotion.
- [28:31]
Don Wildman
So Beauregard being one of them, right?
- [28:33]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Well, Beauregard is the second in command and he's got a whole lot of other issues with Jefferson Davis. They don't like each other. And so when Beauregard gives up Corinth after Shallow, that basically ruins it for him. Borgard will never hold a major army command rest of the war. So there's more than just military ability involved here. There's. There's politics, there's personality, a lot of things involved.
- [28:54]
Don Wildman
Just to put a cap on the Mexican. It's a very interesting perspective on the Civil War. 1865, civil wars ended, 1848, the Mexican American wars. That's a 20 year, not even 20 year time period between. So we're speaking in the end of 2024. I mean, that would be like 9, 11, that time period. You know, that's as recent as the Mexican American war has been for these guys. They were in their 20s when they were in that action. So that's really. They all know each other very well. You know, it's pretty fresh in their minds. By the end of April 6, Beauregard, for one, assumes he's won. I mean, by nightfall, they have pushed the federals way back. They think they've won this battle. It's in the night going into April 7th when everything changes. Buell's forces have arrived at night. I'm not sure when Wallace gets there, but the Union army just swells in numbers. By dawn they're ready for an offensive and to take the ground right back.
- [29:50]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Yes, Buell and Wallace combined will provide grant with about 24,000 fresh troops. And when I say fresh, that means not engaged the day before. And they have marched a long way the day before. So they're not totally fresh, but they weren't engaged the day before. The Confederates, on the other hand, get one regiment of reinforcements. 47th Tennessee. That's 741 men. So 741 men on one side, 24,000 on the other side. You can see, see which way this thing is going. And it's not a hard decision then for Grant to decide, yeah, we're going to stay here and we're going to fight it out. That certainly helps. But even if you compare this with other commanders, often think, if George McClellan had been in command of the Union army here, what would he have done? Given what he did at the Peninsula and other places, you know, and the failure to pursue at Antietam, I'm not sure but what he would have gotten out of there. Joseph Hooker, Chancellorsville, you know, would Hooker have fallen back? And again, people are counseling Grant to do this, but Grant said, no, we're going to stick and fight it out. And that's where he wins the battle. He could have still thrown it away during the night.
- [30:53]
Don Wildman
He's also supported by the Navy, which is gunboats on the river, on the Tennessee river, which are a source of artillery.
- [30:59]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
That last line of defense at shiloh, there's some 50 pieces of artillery in the first third of a mile inland from the river. Then you've got the two gunboats, Towler and Lexington, in the river itself, firing up Dill Branch Ravine. The area is so strong, and this is one of the key things for battlefield preservation. And the federal government did it a long time ago in the 1890s. The American battlefield Trust is a wonderful organization, still doing it today. But to be able to go to those battlefields and to see the terrain, you really can't understand it until you go there. You know, there are a lot of people that argue, oh, the Confederacy just had one more hour of daylight, or if Johnson had just lived, they would have swept over Grant's last line of defense and won that battle. And I dare say the vast majority of those folks that argue that have never been to Shiloh and looked at Dill Branch Ravine and looked at the terrain, you can go out there and cross that thing on foot and put yourself in that position facing 50 cannons in front of you and the gunboats to the side and all of that, and this thing filled with backwater and the steep fuels and all that, there is absolutely no way. And so I've quit arguing with people until they go out there and actually see it, and then we can discuss, you know, from a level playing field kind of thing. But to you go to Shiloh and actually see this, you're really not in a place to even comment on it, really.
- [32:20]
Don Wildman
Well, maybe this podcast will settle this once and for all, for God's sakes.
- [32:30]
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- [33:12]
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- [34:11]
Don Wildman
You mentioned that April 7th is the mirror image of April 6th. The complete opposite happens predictably when you consider the numbers. A Confederate retreat is forced by the union by 3pm that afternoon. It's over pretty much that afternoon. The Confederates all sort of head down to Corinth, Mississippi to gather their forces and prepare for the next thing. There is a counterattack by the Confederates forests charge into Union troops. It's a famous. There's a bunch of famous events here, but when all is said and done, this battle is a two day battle and it's done on April 7th and we're on to taking count of the casualties.
- [34:45]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Yes, day two is very much a mirror image of the first day, just in reverse because they're fighting back over the same areas and so forth. All practical purposes, the Hornet's Nest, Peach Orchard, all those same areas that become so famous on the first day become famous on the second day. But what is really remarkable, I think about the second day is really the fight that Confederate army that fought all day yesterday puts up. And in fact they will stop cold turkey. The vast majority of the Union advances even by Buell's fresh army, if you call it fresh, all across the battlefield except on the extreme Confederate left where they are outflanked not once, not twice, but three times by Lew Wallace's division. And so Lew Wallace is really the fulcrum that puts the pressure on the Confederates and forces them to fall back incrementally, just like Grant had fallen back incrementally the day before. But the Confederates will continue to resist and even as they fall back off the battlefield, even on April 8th. There you mentioned Forrest and kind of this rear guard action a little bit that I think sometimes gets blown out of proportion. You hear a lot of this thing about Forrest gathering one of the Union soldiers and pulling him up on his horse and using him as a shield as he rides away and all that kind of stuff. I'm convinced that's a bunch of hogwash, that there's no evidence whatsoever. I found a lot of manuscript material in writing the book that described fallen timbers, this little battle on the 8th, and nobody mentions this. If I had seen that in real five, I think I would have mentioned that to Mama as I'm riding home to her, you know, but nobody mentions it. I'm convinced that's a fabrication.
- [36:21]
Don Wildman
The band would have done a big number about that one. So the costs are enormous on both sides, but it's pretty equal. I mean, more so on the Union than the Confederate. But it's 13,000 Union casualties. When I say that, I mean 1700 plus killed, 8,000 plus wounded, et cetera, missing and captured. On the other side, it's kind of the same thing. 1728 killed on the Confederates, 8012 wounded, less missing or captured. But nonetheless, it's a pretty even battle, really. When it comes down to it, what's the key is the ground that is gained by the Union troops, ground they didn't even expect to gain that day.
- [36:57]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Shallow will be the real fight for Corinth in the railroads. Later in May, when Halleck comes down and gets on Grant for not folding his letters correctly and all that kind of stuff, he will move on southward to Corinth. The Confederates will retreat without a battle. And this is part of what dooms Beauregard. Just days before, Beauregard has sent a message to Richmond that says, if defeated here, we lose the Mississippi Valley and probably our cause. And this days later, he retreats without fighting a battle. So Jefferson Davis is thinking, if Corinth is so important, why don't you fight for it? And so he'll remove him for other reasons as well. But this, this ends Beauregard's career in a lot of ways, at any rate. So Shallow, yes, is the battle for current and for those railroads and the largest battle in the Mississippi Valley campaign. So that is extremely significant. Also significant, of course, is the cost of this thing we mentioned, the 23,000 casualties. There's some evidence that that's even higher than that. Those are the reported numbers, but the evidence points to even larger casualties. Maybe. But what this produces is the first really big battle of the war. I often Say, you know, America collectively gasped at the casualty figures of child because we never see anything like this in American history. The Revolutionary War war making to have Mexican more battles. These are more casualties than really the size of armies. Winfield Scott didn't have an army this large, as large as the casualties at Shiloh in the whole Mexican War. So it's a huge shock to the nation. The only thing Americans have to compare this to are Napoleonic battles. And so they reference Napoleon and Austerlitz and Waterloo and Yena and Wagram and some of those. So this absolutely gets the nation's attention. And instead of this whole, you know, three months and the war is going to be over type thing, they start figuring out, we have got ourselves into a mess here, and we don't see any way out of this anytime soon. And indeed, it'll take another three years to get out of this.
- [39:00]
Don Wildman
Exactly. And a year to get down to Vicksburg or so. And that will coincide with Gettysburg as when that the whole war really turns. But you're right. This is when this becomes world history. And it's not just American history. This is a global event. Even Grant writes in his magnificent memoirs, quote up to the battle of Shiloh, I as well as thousands of others believed that the rebellion against the government would collapse suddenly and soon if a decisive victory could be gained over its armies. Such was not the case, as he soon realized afterwards, as he's looking back, Johnston's death was a major strategic blow. As I mentioned before, Jefferson Davis wrote after the war, when Sidney Johnston fell, it was a turning point of our fate, for we had no other hand to take up his work in the West. The irony, of course, is that Grant was vilified for being unprepared for this action, for the massive amounts of casualties and so forth. Where was this criticism? What was it based on?
- [39:54]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Well, there are a lot of rumors about Grant. He had left the army before the Civil War, of course, rumors of drunkenness. He had failed in his attempts to even support his family. You know, he tried real estate. He tried farming. He tried everything in the world and failed. But at the beginning of the war, he's working for his father in Delina, Illinois. And so, you know, he was down and out. But, you know, this is the old idea. Do people make great events or do great events make great people? Both ways, of course. But in this case, the event, and we dare say this about Abraham Lincoln as well, the event made the great person because in three or four years, Grant will be commanding the entire Union armies in seven years he's president of the United States, so completely changes his fortunes here. But there are some pretty low points in Grant service here. And after Shiloh is absolutely one of those. During the current campaign, he thinks of residing and going home. And it's Sherman, by all accounts, that talks him out of him and says, no, you got to stay in my how things would have been different had Grant quit and gone home and we'd never heard anything else out of and you know. But he continues on through the Vicksburg campaign, winning more. He's on a little bit of a short leash even then. But then on through Chattanooga and moving to the east and all that. He makes his name there.
- [41:10]
Don Wildman
Yeah. And those battles are yet to come in the chronology we are covering of Civil War battles. Dr. Timothy B. Smith teaches history at the University of Tennessee.
- [41:19]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Martin.
- [41:19]
Don Wildman
And if you've wondered how this man knows this story so well, not only has he written multiple books on Civil War actions, but he was also a national park ranger at Shiloh National Military park in western Tennessee. There you go. That's a good summer job to get head on out there to the national park. Get that hat. Proud positions to blade. Thank you, sir. What's next on your horizon? Working on a new book?
- [41:40]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Yes, I'm actually working on a comparative history of Napoleonic battles with Civil War battles and how they compare and contrast and all that. It's really interesting.
- [41:51]
Don Wildman
All right, cool. Well, we'll get you back to talk about that soon enough. Thank you so much, Tim. Bye bye.
- [41:55]
Dr. Timothy B. Smith
Thanks for having me.
- [41:59]
Don Wildman
Hey, thanks for listening to American History hit. You know, every week we release new.
- [42:04]
Ulysses S. Grant
Episodes, two new episodes dropping Mondays and Thursdays.
- [42:08]
Don Wildman
All kinds of content from mysterious missing.
- [42:11]
Ulysses S. Grant
Colonies to powerful political movements to some.
- [42:14]
Don Wildman
Of the biggest battles across the centuries. Don't miss an episode by hitting like and follow. You help us out, which is great. But you'll also be reminded when our shows are on. And while you're at it, share it with a friend. American History hit with me, Don Wildman.
- [42:30]
Ulysses S. Grant
So grateful for your support. Thanks so much.
- [42:38]
Don Wildman
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Dr. Timothy B. Smith
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- [43:08]
Aura Representative
This podcast is brought to you by Aura. By the time you hear about a data breach, your information has already been exposed for months. On average, companies take 277 days to report a breach. That's nine months where hackers have access to your personal data. That's why we're thrilled to partner with Aura. Aura is an all in one digital safety solution that monitors the dark web for your phone number, email and Social Security number, sending real time alerts if your info is found. It also includes a vpn, password manager and data broker removal. To help keep you safe for a limited time, Aura is offering a 14 day free trial plus a dark web scan to check if your personal information has been leaked. All for free@aura.com safety that's aura.com safety to sign up and protect your loved ones, that's aura.com safety terms apply. Check the site for details.