Gregory S. Hospodor: The Battle of Shiloh - April 17, 2012

well good evening and welcome to the Kansas City Public Library I'm Henry Fortunato director of public affairs and I think this is chapter 481 of our ongoing civil war sesquicentennial series with the army command and General Staff College and I am I am so grateful that the command General Staff College particularly the department of military history was so willing to listen to us our request about a year and a half ago that we work together to create a Civil War series how many of you have been coming to these things on a regular basis and how many of you are our new recruits as it were great well I'm really glad to see all of you here you know the at Fort Leavenworth at the command Roma Staff College at the Department of military history you know their job is to teach military history and and so some of the best scholars in military history in the world are right here in in greater Kansas City at Leavenworth and it's really great that we have the opportunity to present them to you on a regular basis with this Civil War sesquicentennial series so by way of introduction to tonight's program when I was in eighth grade English class about age fourteen or so we were assigned to read a short story by Ray Bradbury maybe some of you have read this it's called the drummer boy of Shiloh anybody remember that from eighth grade some of you were my age the title character was about 14 years old and perhaps that's why it was a sign maybe we were supposed to relate to this young teenager but it did not work for me I did not like this story at all even then I fancied myself a budding historian I wanted to read something historical I wanted to see the Battle of Shiloh I wanted battle scenes I wanted heroism I wanted glory but there's none of that in the drummer boy of Shiloh instead it is just a brief conversation between the drummer boy named Jovie and another character identified only as the general who's obviously ulysses s grant now you know one of the few great aspects of growing old is that you learn to appreciate things you didn't understand when you were younger such is the case with me and my feelings about the drummer boy of Shiloh I've reread this story many times in the decades since I was in junior high school and each time it resonates more and more so I wonder if you'll indulge me for a few moments as I read just just a few excerpts from this story prior to my formal introduction of tonight's speaker I think you'll see why I'm doing this so so here's the scene there's this young drummer boy it's at night he's sleeping with his drum and the next day is the battle and the omniscient narrator says forty thousand mend beyond the familiar shadows exhausted by nervous expectation unable to sleep for romantic dreams of battles yet unfought lay crazily askew in their uniforms a mile yet further on another army was strewn helter-skelter turning slow basting themselves with the thought of what they would do when the time came a leap a yell a blind plunged their strategy raw youth their protection and benediction so he's kind of just there thinking about tomorrow and then a voice a man comes by he sees that the drummer Boyd has been crying and he says this voice well here's a soldier crying before the fight good get it over won't be time once it all starts The Voice is about to move on and but then he looks again he says why it's the drummer boy isn't it the boy nodded not knowing if his nod was seen sir is that you he said I assume it is the man's knees cracked as he'd meant still closer he smelled as all fathers should smell of salt sweat ginger tobacco horse and boot leather and the earth he walked on he had many eyes no not eyes brass buttons that watched the boy he could only be the general what's your name boy he asked Joe be whispered the boy starting to sit up alright Joe be don't stir how long you've been with us three weeks sir run off from home or join legitimately silence damn fool questions at the general do you shave yet boy even more of a damn fool there's your cheek throw right off that tree overhead it's a peach orchard and the others here not much older raw raw damn raw a lot of you you're ready for tomorrow or the next day joby I think so sir you want to cry some more go on ahead I did the same thing last night you sir God's truth thinking of everything ahead both sides fearing another side we'll just give up and soon the war be done in weeks and all of us home well that's not how it's going to be and maybe that's why I cried yes sir said Joe beam so it goes on they're talking some more Joby is concerned the general is trying to reassure him but telling him it's gonna be tough telling him that there's a lot of young guys out there who think they're going to live forever who aren't going to make it past lunch tomorrow so then general says why am I telling you this that's what you want to ask huh well when you got a bunch of wild horses on the loose when you have these lads fresh out of the milk shed don't know what I know I can't tell them men actually died in war so each man is his own army I got to make one army of them and for that boy I need you me the boys lips barely twitched now boy said the general quietly you are the heart of the army think of that you're the heart listen now and he goes on and on and explains how the drummer boy is the heartbeat the drummer boy makes it happen he says if you beat slow they will lag by the wayside they will drowse in the fields they would sleep forever in those same fields their hearts slowed by a drummer boy and stopped by enemy lid but if you beat a shore steady ever faster ism rhythm then their knees would come up in a long line over the hill one knee after the other like a wave on the ocean shore had you ever seen the ocean seen the waves rolling in like a well-ordered calorie well that was it that's what the general wanted that's what I need joby was his right hand and his left hand the general gave the orders but Joby set the pace so what goes on for a little bit more and it's time to close and the general says now that he's convinced that Joby understands the situation he says good and God willing many nights from tonight many years from now when you're as old or far much older than me when they ask you what did you do in this awful time you will tell them one-pot humble and one part proud I was the drummer boy at the Battle of Owl Creek or the Tennessee River or maybe they'll just name it after that Church over there I was the drummer boy at Shiloh well we're gonna hear about the drummer boys at Shiloh all the boys at Shiloh and we're gonna hear about it from dr. Gregory s Hospital an associate professor in the military history at the Command General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth he's been there since 2008 he's a graduate of William and Mary the University of Mississippi and Louisiana State where he did his dissertation on the Mexican War we've been so lucky to have many many of Greg's colleagues from the Command General Staff College at the library for this series this is Greg's first appearance I hope we get more from him because the department military history named him its Teacher of the Year for 2011 and tonight you're going to find out why so ladies and gentlemen please welcome Greg Hospital hey after that introduction the only thing that can happen is I can let you down right all right all right um this is decidedly not what the Battle of Shiloh looked like but that is courier knives version of the Battle of Shiloh right there and Henry that was very nice introduction and I want to share with you you know the facts behind the drummer boy of Shiloh Johnny clone there actually was a drummer boy of Shiloh he retires from the United States Army as a brigadier general in 1914 he is the oldest veteran of the Civil War still in the American in the US Army at that point so there was a real drummer boy of Shiloh and you can look him up his name is Johnny Clint um what are we going to do tonight well the first thing I want to tell you a bit about is you know why am I here my area of expertise is on the Mexican War before I came here to work for the United States Army I taught at a university in Mississippi where I did ten classes at Shiloh and this is in front of one of the monuments there and so I've spent a lot of time and I think I've walked just about every corner of the battlefield that's on public land I I learned that I really only have one rule when I talk about the Battle of Shiloh and that's the rule okay but I guess it's okay if you don't look interested because clearly he wasn't listening right okay in any case well what I want to do because we are not talking precisely on the anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh is start out kind of at the end because today is April 17th 150 years ago today this woman Julia P Cutler she's 47 years old she's living in Constitution Ohio and this is what she wrote in her diary Lucy came this morning and to our inexpressible relief brought a letter from Effie thank God he is safe and did his duty he was under fire from six o'clock Sunday morning until Monday night and did a little fighting on Tuesday Wednesday morning he rode home but the letter had been delayed he says he escaped with his life but lost everything else but we take joyfully the spoiling of his goods since he himself is spared widow Fleming of Barlow lost a son killed and the other wounded young porterfield of Marietta was also killed in young booth brother - Eliza booth Kate went up to Marietta today there is a lamentation and weeping because of those who will return no more lieutenant william scott was shot through the breasts weren't very severe and that's where her diary entry for that day ends that's the result of the Battle of Shiloh Shiloh is the battle that changed the American Civil War at this point it's not going to be a farce anymore o manic farce ulysses s grant wrote in his memoir that it was the Battle of Shiloh that convinced him that one battle wasn't going to end this war and there's one way to victory and that is conquering the south it's where we grew up and it was a hard lesson and we're going to talk a bit about the military aspects of that today there were some other aspects of it that will result the Battle of Shiloh is not decisive in any way shape or form but it is a pivotal battle in the American Civil War and there are a few reasons for that one is that henceforth after the Battle of Shiloh central and western Tennessee is going to remain in Union hands now how many of you have heard of Sherman's march through Georgia pretty pretty important for tearing up logistical capacity for the south and their ability to feed their soldiers right how about the burning of the Shenandoah Valley by Phil Sheridan in 1864 how many of you are aware that both of those were smaller in terms of foodstuffs and logistical capacity removed from the Confederate ability to wage war than the campaign in early 1862 that removed more of a chunk off the table as far as being able to sustain Confederate armies in the field then either one of those two more famous events that is a take home for the campaign and the victory at Shiloh I'm going to ask you something here first before we move on first of all and say anybody been to the battlefield how many people have been to the bathroom okay good how many folks and don't if you do know don't share here's my prop for today it's pretty poor okay I need a raise I guess all right um anybody know why I have this in my hand relative to it so the numbers go down so here's how you become Teacher of the Year you will get one thing out of this this this talk today and it will be at the end of this you will know why I'm holding a tin cup in front of you and talking about the battle show if you get nothing else out of it you're supposed to laugh at that but you don't have all right well let's move on let's talk a bit about the commanders that are here Henry W Halleck he's 47 years old in that picture all right I'm 47 and I think I've come out a little better but you judge for yourself all right that's ulysses s grant ulysses s grant is 40 41 years old at this point Don Carlos Buell over here Halleck is going to be an overall command of the western theater for the United States at this point in the war ulysses s grant is going to be in charge of the army of the Ohio and Don Carlos Buell I'll excuse me ulysses s grant charge of the army of the Tennessee and Don Carlos Buell is in charge of another Union Army the army of the Ohio below is one of the most famous generals in America in 1861 Albert Sidney Johnston he is the second highest-ranking general in the Confederate Army at this point the only one higher is an administrator Robert Ely is ranked below this guy is one of the fellows because he dies during the war we often forgetting that it's thought if you're thinking someone to lead you in war Albert Sidney Johnston is the fella and then we had Pierre Gustav to taunt Beauregard he is going to be second in command of the army of Mississippi subordinate to Albert Sidney Johnston he'll take over command Beauregard is vain he thinks highly of himself and he usually thinks he's right like most Louisianians now I can say that because my daughter was born in Baton Rouge and I went to LSU and I spent more of my life in Louisiana than anywhere else nevertheless these two characters are going to play a role clearly the two big characters in our story here are going to be this fellow here ulysses s grant and Albert Sidney Johnston we need to set the stage though as we march on very briefly to tell you how do we get to the battle Shiloh the Confederacy has a problem in the West and that problem is how to defend Tennessee and indeed grab that border state or at least a portion of it in Kentucky the problem for the Union armies the department under Hallett the Department of Missouri the department under Buell is how to crack the can federate defense line up here in red you see the Confederate positions and then you see in blue the Union positions this is January 1862 the Battle of Shiloh is in early April 1862 now the plan come up with by Hallock is to take forts Henry and Donaldson the significance for our story here is this is where ulysses s grant turns from somebody who nobody expects to be any good to a famous fella and he also had a nice happenstance that his two initials us actually kind of work unconditional surrender which is what he demanded and he rises then in the viewpoint of the the populace of the United States of America as a result all right Henry Halleck has a little issue with this I'm giving you my take on Henry Halleck yer Henry Halleck you know masterminded though the move and kind of feels like he's being left out aside from taking a bad picture he feels like you know we ought to get a little bit of credit for this because after all it's his idea and grant just executed it right he's still a little bit of the credit he's not getting regular reports from Grant and Grant will be removed when he is one of the most famous generals in America for about two weeks from command after he does this successful thing here and of course there's that rumor isn't it what do we all know or think we know about ulysses s grant right well we put that to rest and never got in the way and we don't know how often he you know he pimpled too much what we do know is it never heard its duty during the American Civil War those rumors are sitting out there Henry hallux a little jealous and he isn't getting regular reports from his subordinate and he's relieved of command okay um what we came to find out in the investigation is that there was a Confederate sympathizer between st. Louis and grants army and he sat in the telegraph office in Cairo Illinois and he was pocketing Grant's reports so here's an example of a Confederate sympathizer who escapes later actually getting into the middle of Union command relationships at the highest law okay almost gets grant removed from the beginning now it didn't hurt that McClellan who they're consulting with back in the East had met grant in California when he was drunk on duty so he's carrying that around with him from the 1850s okay nevertheless the effect of the campaign is this you can move down the Cumberland River to Nashville Nashville Falls it splits open albert sidney johnston defensive position and like a night the tennessee river cuts through tennessee into north alabama all the way down to to Muscle Shoals and the Confederates are worried because now the Union Army can move via the Tennessee River which the Confederates can't stop there no more forts on it they can move deep into the heart of the Confederacy and this is early on remember everybody's hoping for a decisive victory okay as we move forward to talk about the Battle of Shiloh we're going to kind of talk about a few different topics one is the mission the other is times kind of military analysis troops and equipment will talk about the terrain and the weather will talk about what they thought they knew about the enemy and then we'll talk a bit about what actually happened okay here's what happens Albert Sidney Johnston now has a choice his original defensive position in Kentucky and Tennessee has been split wide open he has to decide what to do and you'll notice that all of those Confederate units from the four corners are assembling on a town right here called Corinth Mississippi this is going to be one of the first major rail movements of armies in American military history and it's the Confederates that do it not the industrialized north and he says I need to concentrate as many troops as I can and what I need to do before the Union armies concentrate against me and outnumber me is I need to strike them back and what we see happening now is for a brief period of time Corinth Mississippi in 1862 is going to be the most important place militarily in the United States or what will like today still is at that point the Confederacy but for the United States and we'll talk about why in just a second grant - and Halleck his boss how it gets promoted - overall command of the western theater and he says we need to take corn that's the next step in this military operation you beginning to see how we're heading toward shiloh because there's a little landing on the Tennessee River called Pittsburg Landing and it's going to be that landing where Shiloh Church is just inland of all right why did they fight the battle I love this part x marks the spot you don't get to say that very often as a historian but it does you can better see that today is actually a museum there now at the time these there were double track rails in Corinth but today they're still trains that go through Corinth and if you're a fan of the old movie walking tall you remember that series that's just north and McNairy County Tennessee right that State Line whole thing that went on and walking tall that's there Corinth is a place where a major north-south Railroad the Mobile in Ohio and the Memphis and Charleston Railroad the only railroad that runs all the way across the Confederacy cross and it meets in Corinth Mississippi fifteen hundred folks live there it's the most important place and the reason that's it x marks the spot that's the reason the Battle of Shiloh will take place that's the reason the largest force is a massive to this point in American military history are marched to that place or ride trains to that place it's all about the railroads well you can read the slide about ninety five hundred miles of railroads in the Confederacy in 1861 Corinth sits right here and you can follow the green line across to Chattanooga which is going to be another objective later in 1863 Atlanta's down here another major rail net most of the battles in the American Civil War happened close to either river lines or logistical lines supported by railroads so the Tennessee River and the Battle of Shiloh will take place right here very close by it's the nearest offload point for the Union Army why is this important why are those railroad is important militarily if you're going to fight this war well it gives you from a Union perspective some military options and the military options are now you can move along the Tennessee and the rail lines move through Muscle Shoals and Florence over towards Chattanooga but the key is this you don't now necessarily have to take Vicksburg later on although they're going to work on that and pretty soon after the Battle of Shiloh well you're going to take you're going to take New Orleans and Island number 10 and eventually Memphis will fall in 1862 as well but you can cut the Confederacy in half potentially by just marching south that's the reason you want to take Corinth Mississippi it gives you more options for the Confederates this is key terrain we can't give this up we have to keep it Corinth is has more civil war skirmishes there's something like 2,000 that take place around it throughout the war after the American Civil War Prussian staff college folks will come over to look at the entrenchments French people will come over and look at the entrenchments it is the most entrenched military installation in the United States of America and it's all because of that x marks the spot thing okay all right what are the missions well we've already talked some about this there are a few missions here for grants army that offloads at Pittsburg Landing it is to wait to train to get in shape build up supplies for when this fellows army marches down from Nashville and they assemble then they're going to have an overwhelming force and they can now march on Corinth then they're going to be a whole lot the Confederates can do about it that's the mission for Albert Sidney Allen I've got his name spelled wrong your apologies Johnston it's Johnstone he his job is to crush grants army before Don Carlos Buell shows up he wants to do what military terms is called defeat them in detail I how does this play into it well it really does actually matter for grant but they don't know it they don't expect the Confederates to attack okay they should expect it we'll talk about that when we talk about intelligence but for for grant it doesn't appear that time matters for them they're waiting the moment when the two armies come together for Johnston's army it absolutely matters because there is a narrow window of opportunity and the best way to think of defeating an enemy in detail would be this if I took this entire Lowe and fought you each one by one I might have a chance I don't know some of you look pretty tough okay but if all eight of you came up here and me at once that's going to be a problem for me that's what defeat in detail means that's what Albert Sidney Johnston wants to do take on one opponent defeat them and move on to the next troops and equipment few interesting things here for the Confederates almost all of them this is going to be their first fight period remember that because it has everything to do with how the battle is fought and it also has a lot to do with the way they record what happens in the battle these are folks that in civil war terms saw the elephant that's what they called it for the first time some of grants army there are five divisions at Pittsburg Landing five units at Pittsburg Landing three of them have fought previously so grants army is going to be the more experienced army okay at at Shiloh why does this matter well we could spend an hour just talking about this we're not going to do that okay thankfully this is kind of a graph that represents what troops first experience of combat psychologically what their kind of psychological pathway is relative to anxiety and so the idea here is a first soldier in battle well there you go they're kind of worried about the unknown but when the first person gets shot next to them there's a spike now what you do at that moment dictates everything some units broke and ran other units weren't cognizant of how dangerous what they were doing were and acted like crazy heroic fiends and it's not because they know it's not the heroism born of knowledge it is the heroism born of I don't know any better and everybody's going forward right and they tend to focus on what's right in front of them which makes Shiloh an incredibly difficult battle to parse because everybody's experience is about this big because the anxiety levels and this counts for the officers as well is very high now the difference is veteran troops they're worried because they know what battles like but once it gets started kind of like a football game you get the first play you go hit somebody and after that you're okay then you can do your job and that's the difference between experienced and in veteran troops leadership let's talk a little bit about that give you a couple stats here the Confederates appear to have the best have the best part of this and here's why there are 13 West pointers between 44 and 14 years of service in the most important leadership positions in the Confederate Army now that's 14 folks for an army of over 40,000 either way it's not very high when I say West Point to you I'm talking folks that did the Army for a living the rest of the folks are like hey it's 1861 let's go fine okay the Union Army is in a worse position among the higher level Union commanders grant and Sherman alone our Regular Army guys and both Sherman and Grant had gotten out of the Army in the 1850s okay so almost counter-intuitively the Confederates seemed to have the advantage here in all not more than seven Union officers had military had Regular Army experience so that's going to have an impact on the battle I could tell you a few stories here winter comes to Sherman has had a desperate time emotionally he's had a nervous breakdown some Union papers actually used the word insane all right about him it doesn't hurt to have a brother who's a senator so he's back this is going to play a role in the battle because he doesn't want to show the least bit of nerves and before the battle there are a whole lot of indicators that the Confederates are coming I'm not afraid are you afraid man I'm not afraid well why because he hears the rumors you know about him one anecdote the effect of this this inexperienced officer corps is going to manifest itself for the Confederates they're the ones who are moving here and they do a march on two roads and this is a carnival of errors they leave on April 3rd they are supposed to be in position to attack on the morning of April 5th they go in on April 6th one day will make a big difference in this battle because Don Carlos Buell's army will show up on the afternoon of April 6th ok that one day makes a difference and it is a carnival of errors there are Confederate troops shooting in mass at deer this is supposed to be a surprise attack some are practicing the rebel yell although they don't call it the rebel yell yet others when they see Albert Sidney Johnston be willing and you can hear all this stuff ok and yet the Union forces although there are some among them who know aren't prepared they had every reason this would not happen in 1863 it sure as heck wouldn't happen in 1864 in early 1862 both armies are still learning their business and that's something to remember a whole lot of figures up here the take home for you is this relative to these figures on day one of the battle the reason surprise matters for the Confederates is that the ratio is about one to one there's about one Confederate to every Union soldier and well folks from Mississippi and Louisiana might the 10 Confederates or one Confederates worth 10 Yankees it doesn't really play that way out in reality the battlefield so they're going to count on surprise that's why surprises can be the multiplier they want that shock action what's interesting is our figures for day two because they range from 34,000 down to 20,000 it's probably 28,000 is about right a lot of these folks after the first day in the Confederate Army they just go home and they straggle and say I've had enough I've had my first taste of battle thank you very much okay on the second day of the Battle of Shiloh with those extra reinforcements that do show up right that combination of armies has happened the ratio is about two Union soldiers now to everyone Confederate what do you think happened on the second day I know even if you don't know much about the Battle of Shiloh you can predict how well is that going to work out tell me really the inevitable happens the second day of the Battle of Shiloh is a Union victory it's a grinding tough attritional fight but they win and one reason why we keep coming back to this battle is because of the what-ifs what about the first day what if they've gone in there what will does whether play in the campaign well it rains like heck on the road march out there so they're not trained they're cheering for their generals they're shooting it deer and it's raining not good thing it doesn't really have an effect relative to the fighting on the battlefield that is a picture of a field which is near where the hornet's nest is if you've been to the Shiloh the terrain itself is interesting the map points off in the north the key terrain is this Pittsburgh landing the Union has to hold that because without that they're isolated there's swampy ground up to the north this is where I'll Creek is the Confederates are going to come from this direction and that's the road network okay there's a little road and they call it a sunken Road for those of you been there I mean you were probably underwhelmed with the sunken nosov it and its deepest is about this deep it's not sunken really at all but the significance of that road is Grant shows up and he says post your regiments here and don't leave well how easy an order is that there's a road where we don't go down the road where we hold on the road and it's running across the line of confederate vans because the Confederates are going to come from this direction and go back down there okay sometimes folks make a big deal about the about the weapons that the Confederates don't have modern weapons well you saw on this map there are a few trees on this battlefield and if you've been - I'll owe it's confusing as heck you follow the tour map and you just can't wait to get to a field because that's how Civil War battlefields are supposed to look like Gettysburg right that's supposed to be trees I don't understand trees let's confuse it well guess what welcome to Shiloh green troops and wooded terrain some Confederates are carrying you know grandpappy's shotgun well if I'm shifted 20 metres away from somebody to the back of the room it doesn't matter if I've got a modern firearm that can hit somebody after 300 meters so the difference there about the equipment doesn't matter that much of Shiloh it will matter in those open fields those will become the killing grounds there okay why did grant go here well this is a great place he's looking for a place to put an army hi well-watered you've got streams there's swampy ground up here to protect one side of you from a Confederate attack and the Tennessee River is off down here to the bottom you tell me which direction the Confederates are coming from they got to come from that direction Delta and it's a great place to Train there's some open fields where you can get out there and train these green troops some of which you're out there the Confederates are going to have to come from that direction grant has five divisions at Shiloh five units okay bad setup he gets surprised if you were going to get attacked you would not put the two units in your army that have never fought a battle camp closest to the enemy that's who these folks are William Tecumseh Sherman's division and prentices division are stuck out here they're going to be the first folks the green ones they confront the Confederate attack his experienced folks are back here has everything to do with lack of expecting the Confederates to hit them what do they know each side now well there's no way of putting it grant and his subordinate commanders should have known the Confederates were coming they had ample opportunities there is a skirmish out there there numerous up skirmishes that take place the day before the battle okay grants cavalry commander and it's calves job to go out there and look around for the enemy guess where he is hundreds of miles away with the boss Henry Halleck they're not ready this won't happen in 1863 this won't happen in 1864 and they're willfully ignoring some of the recommendations from some of the lower-level commanders there's a guy there that nobody ever hears of he's dead he's dead his monuments on the battlefield where he was killed named Everett he buddy who was a brigade commander in prentices division and Peabody knows something's up and he takes heat from his division commander and he has his men ready and in fact moves out to engage the Confederates on the morning of April 6th and what happens is it takes them because they're not quite ready to launch the major attack about an hour and a half to overcome this small unit and then nine thousand folks descend on 1500 and the inevitable happens Everett Peabody dies there nobody remembers him he bought the Union Army an hour and a half and that's an hour and a half after sunlight at the end of the battle when the Confederates might have been able to attack Pittsburg Landing what do the Confederates know well this is Johnston's home amid no Confederates know what this stuff looks no Maps they don't know very little intelligence about what the Union position looks like so they're stumbling into the dark as well so no good military maps of what's going on they roughly know what things look like grant expects that Buell is going to show up and this is the key race at Shiloh if fuel shows up things are good if he doesn't things are going to be bad potentially if the Confederates are able to attack with surprise the Confederate plan involves rather elaborate for cool or these are kind of big major divisions in an army attack now the first Corps is put up here in front and line the second Corps is put up here in another line behind it general pokes first Corps is back here the first in line by the way is back here and then there's a reserve corps by a fellow who a couple years before was vice-president of the United States of America John Breckinridge in the back now what is going to be the problem when this first line bumps into Union forces who do you turn to to come for reinforcements but general Hardy these aren't your being and they it ends up becoming very confused it's a bad alignment so the Confederate plan is a problem this won't happen in 1863 it won't happen again in 1864 what ends up happening is this turns into a big mishmash and you have general officers running around behind the line going you I don't care you report to come with me an attack there and they end up subdividing the front among them who they were supposed to be in charge of ends up not mattering at the Battle of Shiloh and again it's that 1862 where we're learning that the Civil War is going to be different than we expect that's what Johnston wants to take Pittsburg Landing and here's what he said turn the left flank okay turn the left flank of the enemy and throwing back on Al Creek this is what that's going to look like there the Confederate other Union camps you're supposed to fix them or hold them up there and then do that and you're going to make a big bag of Union soldiers back here and low swampy ground near out Creek okay now remember this thing because it's going to have some significance about what I think is the reason why Albert Sidney Johnston dies where he does in the battle okay here's how the battle was actually fought do you remember that funnel I showed you the Confederates are going to come on one side what's natural if I kind of push you back in this direction and I'm pushing everybody back with relatively equal pressure you're going to all accumulate in the back corner but if that's Pittsburgh landing back there well I want you want to get out that door and I can get somebody over here that's a different situation right that in essence is what Albert Sidney Johnson wants to do he wants to get over at Pittsburg Landing but in fact what happens is he attacks in the front and he shoves everybody towards the door that makes sense you see the hornet's nest up here sadly there are a lot of anecdotes may be in question time I can throw some of those at you it's one of the more famous places on the battlefield it's going to be a place where the Confederates are going to spend in the center a lot of time reducing there's some modern scholarship that says the fighting there isn't quite what as important as they said that it was as has been put forth subsequently what I will say is that the people who fought at the time seemed to think it was important so maybe we ought to listen to them okay that's just me but and besides that it's one of the most beautiful walks on a Civil War battlefield you can take and for those who've you been there you probably know what I'm saying unless you were there in the rain as I have been some time but you know if you go there that's well marked and there's a nice pathway that goes through it um Albert Sidney Johnston is killed here in front of the peach orchard and he dies down in in in this area here what's his plan remember where the hornet's nest is it's right here you see one might a General Officer be there remember his plan I got to get here I think you know and I'm not the first one to think it guys I've written no books on Shiloh I'm informed by what others have written all right I think he's there because for him that's the key place to be the battle will be decided on the Union left flank the Confederate right flank and I need to be here to get them to keep pushing this attack forward because if I don't get the Pittsburg Landing and Buell shows up this game's over for us and we've lost the battle but he's shot there's a story behind that all right maybe we can tell it later you can ask me and I'll tell you um tin cup I did tell you I tell you that okay Albert Sidney Johnston tin heads a tin cup like this early in the fight the Confederates Greene they go into Union camps they've eaten most of them I've eaten their round their rations on the first day and now they've got in a union camp and they could stop and loop he rides in and reprimands an officer so say we're all looting and here the officer in charge you got the general in command who rides up and goes what do you think you do and everybody stops and looks and goes all the bosses getting chewed out in front of its man he looks and he realizes what he's doing and then he reaches down he picks up a tin cup and he says let this be my spoils of the day and everybody goes and he rides around the rest the batter with a tin cup not his sword and he points in further the peach orchard a brigade refuses to charge division commander shows up says hey boss can you go talk to him and get him to get out there and get shot at he rides over there you go on fire-eater is horse with his tin cup and he does the Braveheart thing I'm going to do that now I'm tapping never ever lived a Braveheart where he's tapping he's got his tin cup and he'll live less than an hour after that this is that tin cup by the way it's for sale at No no it is alright so remember I promised you the least know that all right I got to get going hey this is the part that we like the pretty parts of the battlefield of Shiloh this is also not the place where generally it didn't take a brilliant Confederate tactician to attack across an open field once before they went let's go through the woods so we all stand there and look oh what a killing ground must been to thousands and most of the fighting actually took place at the hornet's nest like in these trees because I could close within this distance from the back of the room before I took fire because you could see me right you're getting shot up way across the field out there alright a lot of questions about grants you know that what happens at the end of the battle a lot of controversy about that one of the things grant does is he is a very determined individual he might have been surprised he was on a boat up at Savannah and he has to sail down on a steamboat gets off he spends the battle setting up what's called a defense in depth he will grab folks and say all right you stay here and then by the way while those guys are fighting out there at the sunken Road I'm going to set up another line behind it and he elects a line in front of Pittsburg Landing and if you go there today you'll see these guns Nathan Bedford Forrest at night after a Confederate attack has gone in sneaks up has some of his guys go and look back there and they realized that Union reinforcements are coming so he goes in fives general Hardy and he says general Hardy if we don't attack tonight we're not attacking tomorrow because there's more of them coming all right and the really one of the what-ifs about the Battle of Shiloh is what if the Confederates attacked again well I will tell you this if you go there walk down into dill branch imagine fighting your way across three and a half miles okay there were no fresh units that reach that this lower area here down here and then look at bluff and when you get up to the top of it after fighting through the infantry small-arms fire you're confronted with some siege cannons and I would tell you that it didn't matter what Nathan Bedford Forrest thought that is a position that on a Civil War battlefield and I've walked a bunch of them that's one that unless they run away you're not going to take now you can differ with me go walk it for yourself and check it out okay and read about it the problem is night happens to what if they'd had another hour and a half that's what gets bought at the the hornet's nest as well greats last line in essence that's what happens okay and they are right there you mean you can see Pittsburg Landing right down here but they're unable to break it and what happens overnight is the army of the Ohio shows up speed this up will get done day number two what do you think happens on day number two just look at the figures up there this is a stiff fight okay make no bones about it and there's a lot of heroism on both sides a lot of self-sacrifice on both sides a lot of killing happens but the reality of this it's a nutritional fight which is wearing them down and the Confederates just aren't going to be able to fight that fight they're not going to be able to sustain it they will retreat in order back towards North Mississippi at the end of the second day and at this point you know they launched a counter-attack late in the day but but the Union forces are able to push him off the battlefield Johnston is now dead here are the Confederacy and Beauregard takes command later Beauregard will say he's sick and just remove himself from command this will follow him for the rest of the Civil War he doesn't ask permission he doesn't wait for orders he says I'm sick and leaving he sees the writing on the wall soon Henry Halleck will show up and dig his way to Corinth Mississippi and they'll take corn Mississippi which will remain until late 1864 65 when they can when it's not important anymore they'll retreat out of it and come back into it but Corinth Mississippi will be taken come to this figure because that's the real story this is not a picture from the battlefield of Shiloh those of your Civil War folks know where this picture is I think from a Spotsylvania courthouse in 1864 and I'll leave you with this fact right sitting right there at the bottom there were more battle casualties at the Battle of Shiloh than all of America's previous wars combined the American Revolution the war of 1812 the Mexican War all the conflicts with Native Americans in between take all those battle casualties one battle you want to know why what we said at the beginning why ray bradbury wrote about the drummer boy of Shiloh why the woman whose diary I read to you is writing about it why it shocked America and made us lose any romantic fancies about what kind of war this was going to be that did it and I can't remember the author who said it maybe somebody here can correct me who said the South never smiled after Shiloh and I think the same could be said of the United States as well in this conflict and we gird our loins and we get on with what will become an ugly uglier bloodier business that is really about conquering the the American South in order to keep our union together and it's here that we wake up and it's not and we wake up into a nightmare if you want to call it that that's the Battle of Shiloh okay there are a lot of anecdotes and whatnot but I need to cease and desist I think right now and I'll let you guys go ahead and ask questions if you have you

Channel: The Kansas City Public Library

Views: 33,442

Rating: 4.7853661 out of 5

Keywords: Gregory Hospodor, Battle of Shiloh, Civil War, history, Kansas City Public Library

Id: PZplUIL4p2c

Length: 50min 57sec (3057 seconds)

Published: Tue May 08 2012