An Interesting Find: A Shiloh Letter, April 8, 1862

As those of you who know me or follow the blog will no doubt know, while Antietam and the Maryland Campaign are my main topics of study, I do have other areas of interest in the Civil War as well. The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 and Kennesaw Mountain are one area of interest, and so is the Battle of Shiloh. I was born on the anniversary of Shiloh, and went to visit there earlier this year with my dad. I did quite a few posts on Shiloh (all of which can be found here), as it is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating battles of the war. The human interest stories of Shiloh are very compelling, and the fact that it was the first of the great battles of the war adds a certain mystique to it. While First Bull Run was a major event in 1861, the first truly great and terrible battle of the war that saw killing and death on a grand scale took place along the Tennessee River in April 1862. For anyone who has been to Shiloh, you will understand when I say it is a place you will never forget.

Anyways, I have been in the Western Reserve Historical Society library lately doing some research on an upcoming and heretofore unannounced project, and I came across the following letter from Captain Peter Hitchcock of the 20th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In Hitchcock's papers at the WRHS, there are folders and folders of beautiful, well written letters to Sarah Jane Willcox, his future wife, while Peter was in the army. Some of the letters resemble love poems they are so well written. Hitchcock also does a great job of describing some of the combat that he saw. Below is one example. This is a letter Peter wrote to his love, Sarah, on April 8, 1862, one day after the Battle of Shiloh. It can be found in the Peter Hitchcock Papers, Container 28a, of the Western Reserve Historical Society.  The 20th Ohio was a part of Lew Wallace's 3rd Division of the Army of the Tennessee which arrived late in the day on April 6th, but in enough time to reinforce Grant and take part in the battle on April 7th.

April 8, 1864, Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee, HQ 3^rd Brigade, 3^rd Division

You will be surprised to learn that our Brigade with the balance of the Division at Crumps Landing were day before yesterday ordered to move to this place to support the forces here as they had been attacked by the combined rebel forces under Beauregard.

Day before yesterday at about 2 o’clock we left Adairsville for the new position from that time until late at night we were on the way marching, probably 8 or 9 miles on reaching here we learned that our forces had been driven back from their position up nearly to the river, probably a distance of 5 miles, our center had suffered the most and were pushed closest to the river. Beauregard had sent in word that he was going to drive our forces all into the river. General Buell’s forces at about the time we arrived also arrived on the opposite side of the river, and were crossing all night, but only a small portion got over to assist in the battle. We have had a splendid victory. Early yesterday morning our forces commenced the attack, and although the ground was inch by inch hotly contested, our forces kept pushing them farther and farther away, though at places and times they drove us back, still onward pushed our forces, until the last grand stand by the enemy was made on the ground we now occupy, here all along the lines (probably 8 miles) for two hours or more there was a continuous round of musketry and cnanon, at last the enemy gave way, and reired in any good order. Their losses are immense, and ours must be very great there is no doubt over 6,000 killed and wounded. Our regiment though engaged has had few men lost, one killed of Co. B., Capt. William Rogers Co A., wounded, and about 10 or 12 privates of Sunday companies some very badly, our Lt. Col. had his sword shot while in his hand.

I am all safe, only having been well scared several times by stray shots. You can learn more from the papers of the engagement, than I can tell you. I have no time to write as I am wanted with the teams, tell all at home I am safe and well.

We move on Cornith from this point I suppose.

From your own,

Peter

April 6, 1862

150 years ago today, on April 6, 1862, the Battle of Shiloh began. Over the past few weeks, I have done various posts on Shiloh, stemming from my recent visit. I have always been fascinated by this battle, as I was born on its 125th Anniversary (yes, that makes today my birthday). Shiloh has always stood out for me as being a very unique battle. It was the first of the great and terrible battles of the war. One week short of one year into the war, 24,000 Americans lay dead, wounded, or dying on once peaceful fields in Southern Tennessee. There was no turning back for America after Shiloh, as it forever changed the nation. It told all who would listen that the war would not be an easy affair, that the war would not be over quickly, and that with such momentous issues at stake, a great deal of blood would be required to settle the matter of which vision of liberty would prevail.

In Corinth, Mississippi, about 20 miles south of Shiloh, there is a relatively new NPS Interpretive Center. If you get the chance, I highly recommend you go there. Along with the fine museums and interpretive films, the Interpretive Center has a small display behind the building. The display, pictured above, is of a stream, the stream of American history. It starts with the Declaration of Independence; small ripples in the stream are caused by various sectional controversies leading up to the war. The blocks in the middle represent the war itself, with the larger blocks representing the larger battles. I found this to be fascinating because it is an excellent way to understand how these battles impacted history. Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, and many others were all major events in the stream of American history, causing ripples which are still being felt today. Shiloh led to unforeseen casualties, the rise of a Lost Cause myth, the rise of Ulysses S. Grant, but more importantly, it taught Americans exactly how high the price of freedom truly is. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were documents that were so sacred that in order to either destroy or save them, thousands upon thousands of lives would need to be sacrificed. Those sacrifices, made at Shiloh 150 years ago, still affect our lives today, reminding us of what it means to be a citizen in this great republic.

Because I have written quite a bit about my recent visit to Shiloh, today, in commemoration of the battle's 150th anniversary, I wanted to simply share some of my favorite photos from my visit there (what I hope will be the first of many visits). Let us remember the sacrifices made 150 years ago today in the fields and woods surrounding Shiloh Church. As Lincoln wrote in his December 3, 1861 message to Congress, "The struggle of today, is not altogether for today -- it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence, all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us."


Here are the links for the posts I have done about Shiloh over the past few weeks. You can find many more Shiloh photos in these posts as well.

Shiloh National Cemetery
Confederate Burial Trenches 
Shiloh's Confederate Memorial
Sherman Arrives at Pittsburg Landing
Battle of Shiloh Begins
Shiloh's Rhea Field
Shiloh's State Monuments
Shiloh's Hornets' Nest
April 3, 1862: Confederate Advance, Union Camps
April 5, 1862: "The eyes and hopes of eight millions of people rest upon you" (Death of A.S. Johnston)

I would be remiss if I didn't put the most important photo first. Going to Shiloh with my Dad made my first visit to Shiloh all the more special. Here is Dad and I along the edge of the Hornets' Nest, with Duncan Field behind us. 

Now, on to my other favorite photos...

Iowa Monument

Iowa Monument

Confederate Memorial

 Tennessee Memorial

 Artillery near Water Oaks Pond

 Sherman's Headquarters sign

 57th Ohio Monument

The Peach Orchard

 

One of the park's resident Bald Eagles, taken in Cloud Field

 Shiloh at sunset, taken from the Peach Orchard (same for next few)

 

Shiloh National Cemetery

Graves of Wisconsin Color Bearers overlooking the Tennessee River

Site of Grant's Headquarters on the evening of April 6ht

Shiloh National Cemetery

Confederate Battery Tablet

 Albert Sydney Johnston Death Site

Confederate Burial Trench

April 5, 1862: "The eyes and hopes of eight millions of people rest upon you"

"While the troops were deploying for battle... the sun set clear and red beyond the tasseling oaks on tomorrow's battlefield. There was a great stillness in the blue dusk, and then the stars came out. The moon, which had risen in the daylight sky, was as thin as a paring, a sickle holding water but unclouded. I never saw the moon so high, so remote--a dead star lighting a live on where forty thousand men, young and old but mostly young, slept on their arms in line of battle, ready for the dawn attack through the woods before them. God knows what dreams came to them or how many lay there sleepless thinking of home."

Reflections of Lieutenant Palmer Metcalfe, Aide-de-Camp on Albert Sydney Johnston's staff, on the night before Shiloh. [From Shelby Foote's novel, Shiloh (Revised edition, New York: Vintage Books, 1980), 25.]

Albert Sydney Johnston

Raid, mud, inexperience, and poor communication had all hampered the march north, but they could not dismay Albert Sydney Johnston. On the evening of April 5, 1862, Johnston was on the eve of his greatest moment. His entire life had been one of service. He could claim to be a general of three republics, as one of his biographers has termed him. He served the United States Army, the army of the Republic of Texas, and now, he was the commander of Confederate forces in the west, one of the highest ranking officers in the entire Confederacy. He even outranked P.G.T. Beauregard, the Confederacy's hero of Fort Sumter and [First] Manassas, victories which gave Southerners hope in 1861.

But now, it was spring of 1862. Beauregard's victories seemed long ago. Federal successes at Forts Henry and Donelson had torn the Confederate defenses asunder, sending legions of blue clad Yankees deep into the heart of the South. Using rivers to move into Southern Tennessee, Major General Ulysses S. Grant had as his next target the only form of transportation that was more important than rivers: railroads. Corinth, where the Mobile and Ohio and the Memphis and Charleston Railroads intersected, was the next strategic point where Federal forces had their hearts set on. With over 48,000 Federal soldiers at Pittsburg Landing on the west bank of the Tennessee River, just 20 miles from Corinth, it appeared as though it would be only a matter of time before Grant achieved yet another incredible victory.

Albert Syndey Johnston knew this. Thus, he determined he would not wait for defeat; he would seize the initiative to achieve victory. On April 3, Johnston and Beauregard began moving north with their Army of the Mississippi, over 40,000 strong and full of green recruits with shotguns previously used for squirrel hunting. By the evening of April 5, the Confederates were behind schedule. Their initial plans had called for an attack on April 4th. Those plans were adapted to attacking on the morning of the 5th. Yet, rather than launching an attack on the morning of the 5th, many Confederates were still arriving in their pre-battle positions throughout the day.

On the evening of the 5th, a Confederate council of war saw Johnston, Beauregard, and their leading commanders discussing the prospects for an attack the following morning. After the long and difficult march, Beauregard now felt the odds of surprising the Federals were no longer in their favor, suggesting Grant's army would be "entrenched to the eyes." The Louisiana native was in favor of withdrawing to avoid being defeated by a well prepared enemy.

Johnston would have none of it. After hearing from several of his commanders, including Major General Leonidas Polk, who was in favor of the attack, Johnston proclaimed, "Gentlemen, we shall attack at daylight."

Upon ending the conference, Johnston remarked to Colonel William Preston, his brother-in-law and aide, "I would fight them if they were a million. They can present no greater front between those two creeks than we can; and the more they crowd in there, the worse we can make it for them.... Polk is a true soldier and a friend."

Johnston's enthusiasm for the moment was not his alone. Many Confederates knew the stakes of the battle that would come on the morrow. An array of Confederates in uniforms of grey, butternut, as well as some in shades of blue, with battle flags of different corps varying in style, was truly an amalgamation of Southerners. Men from Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas were preparing to launch a surprise attack on men who they had previously called their countrymen. The attack that would come the following morning would prove to be a landmark event, forever changing the course and flow of American history. That evening, Johnston's battle message was read aloud to the various units of his army, reminding them of the stakes of the upcoming fight:

“I have put you in motion to offer battle to the invaders of your country. With the resolution and disciplined valor becoming men fighting, as you are, for all worth living or dying for, you can but march to a decisive victory over the agrarian mercenaries sent to subjugate and despoil you of your liberties, property, and honor. 

Remember the precious stake involved; remember the dependence of your mothers, your wives, your sisters, and your children on the result; remember the fair, broad, abounding land, the happy homes, and the ties that would be desolated by your defeat. 

The eyes and hopes of eight millions of people rest upon you. You are expected to show yourselves worthy of your race and lineage; worthy of the women of the South, whose noble devotion in this war has never been exceeded in any time. With such incentives to brave deeds and with the trust that God is with us, your generals will lead you confidently to the combat, assured of success.”

The following morning, as Johnston heard the first shots of the battle from Fraley Field, he said to his staff, "Tonight we will water our horses in the Tennessee River." Yet, by 2:30 that afternoon of April 6, 1862, Johnston lay dead under an oak tree near Sara Bell's Peach Orchard.


Throughout the day, Johnston led from the front, channeling different brigades and regiments into battle. His fiery demeanor and courage inspired the men as they went to meet the enemy. During the early afternoon fighting, Johnston found himself leading an attack into one of the hottest parts of the battlefield. After hearing that several Confederate regiments were hesitant to charge the Federal lines near the Peach Orchard, Johnston rode to the front of the 9th Arkansas, clanging a tin cup he took from a Federal camp along the bayonets of the men, proclaiming, “Soldiers, get ready! Soldiers of the 9th Arkansas regiment are you ready to drive the invaders of your country from our soil?” The men responded with a shout: "We are!"

Johnston then told the Arkansas men, " you who boast of using cold steel, don’t waste your ammunition. I will lead you”. According to one observer, Johnston's words were incredibly powerful and effective: “His presence was full of inspiration… his voice was persuasive, encouraging, and compelling. It was inviting men to death, but they obeyed it. But, most of all, it was the light in his gray eyes, and his splendid presence… that wrought upon them.”

Johnston rode forward with the Confederate attack, retiring back behind the lines around 2 p.m. Shortly thereafter, Tennessee Governor Isham Harris, an aide on Johnston's staff, noticed the general leaning in the saddle. Harris asked Johnston, "General, are you wounded?", to which he replied, "Yes, and I fear seriously." 

Harris helped to lead Johnston's horse "Fire Eater" out of the line of fire, bringing the general down into a nearby ravine. After helping him from his horse, Harris and Johnston's staff frantically checked the general for wounds. None were found. By 2:30 p.m., Johnston bled to death from a wound in the back of his knee, severing an artery. His blood and pooled in his knee high boots. Johnston was found to have had a field tourniquet in his pocket when he died; had he used it, he may have lived. Yet, no one discovered the wound, and before they knew it, Albert Sydney Johnston became the highest ranking officer to be killed during the American Civil War.

Johnston's Monument at Shiloh, located where he was found leaning in the saddle.

Site believed to be where Johnston died. Recent studies have suggested that Johnston's death site was in fact a few hundred yards away from this location.

Taken from the Peach Orchard looking southeast, 

Johnston's monument can be seen in the distance on the right side of the picture.

 Johnston's Death is prominently featured and mourned on the Confederate Memorial at Shiloh

Shiloh, April 3, 1862: "The weather is now springlike..."

On April 3, 1862, the clouds of war were gathering in southern Tennessee. The Army of the Tennessee, led by Major General Ulysses S. Grant, was concentrating around Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee River. Over twenty miles to the south, Confederate forces were gathering, preparing, and organizing for one of the greatest attacks in American history. Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnston, commander of the Confederate Department of the West, knew that time was of the essence. The Federal forces at Pittsburg Landing were gathering to strike at Corinth, Mississippi, where the Memphis and Charleston, and Mobile and Ohio Railroads intersected, connecting nearly every part of the Confederacy. Johnston knew that Major General Don Carlos Buell was advancing from Nashville with his Army of the Ohio. The time to strike was now. A decision was made; the Confederate Army of the Mississippi, with Johnston in the lead, would move north to strike Grant’s force at Pittsburg Landing, hopefully taking them by surprise.


While decisions were being made at Corinth, at Pittsburg Landing, the air was filled with springtime, and the sounds of an army in camp. New recruits were drilled in marching and battle techniques, soldiers inspected weapons, and men wrote letters home. Among those doing the latter was Brigadier General William T. Sherman. Sherman’s road to this point in his life was filled with ups and downs. His life before the war was marked with personal failures and great self doubt. In 1861, at the start of the war, he was a Louisiana military academy superintendent. With the wave of secession sweeping the South, Sherman went north to his native Ohio, leaving the South behind, believing his southern friends were making a grave mistake. Sherman took command of a brigade, and received his Civil War baptism of fire at the Battle of First Manassas. By the fall of 1861, Sherman was the commander of the District of Kentucky. The job proved to be too much for him. Believing that innumerable Confederates were amassing for an attack, Sherman sent urgent messages to his superiors, calling for more men, let he and the North be overwhelmed. Because of this, he was relieved of his post, and sent to St. Louis to serve under General Henry Halleck. Many in the north called him insane for his seemingly irrational fears of a strong Confederate army and a prolonged and bloody war. Yet, after several months had passed, when it was time for a Federal army to exploit the gains made by Grant at Forts Henry and Donelson, Sherman was in the right place for a division command. His men were among the first Federal soldiers to set up camp at Pittsburg Landing. Indeed, Sherman was in many ways responsible for the location of the Federal camp there.

On that April 3, 1862, as Confederates began marching north from Corinth, Mississippi, and Albert Sydney Johnston prepared an attack upon which rode the hopes of the Confederacy, Sherman was writing a letter to his wife, Ellen, from his headquarters near Shiloh Church. He described for her the situation at Pittsburg Landing, noting that spring had arrived. Portions of the letter are below:

Sherman's Headquarters Monument, near Shiloh Church

Recreation of historic Shiloh Church, sitting on the same site (next to modern day Methodist Church)

Pittsburg, Landing, Tennessee
Camp, April 3, 1862

Dearest Ellen,

I have really neglected writing for some days. I don’t know why, but I daily become more and more disposed to stop writing… We have now near 60,000 men here, and Bragg has command at Corinth only 18 miles off, with 80 regiments and more coming. On our part, McCook, Thomas, and Nelson’s Divisions are coming from Nashville and are expected about Monday …[These divisions compose the Army of the Ohio; they did indeed arrive on Monday, just in time for the second day of the Battle of Shiloh] when I suppose we must advance to attack Corinth or some other point on the Memphis and Charleston Road.

Peach Orchard in bloom

Shiloh's Peach Orchard is located in Sara Bell's Cotton Field. While Sherman wrote of the trees in bloom, the majority of his division was camped to the south and west of the Peach Orchard. However, the brigade of Colonel David Stuart was encamped just a few hundred yards away, guarding the road south to Hamburg, Tennessee. 

The weather is now springlike, apples and peaches in blossom and trees beginning to leave, bluebirds singing and spring weather upon the hillsides. This part of the Tennessee differs somewhat from that up at Bellefonte. There the Alleghany Mountains still characterized the Country whereas here the hills are lower and rounded covered with oak, hickory, and dogwood, not unlike the Hills down Hocking [in Ohio]. The people have mostly fled, abandoning their houses, and such as remain are of a neutral tint not knowing which side will turn up victors. That enthusiastic love of the Union of which you read in the newspapers is a form of expression easily written, but is not true. The poor farmers certainly do want peace, and protection, but all the wealthier classes hate us Yankees with a pure unadulterated hate. They fear the Gunboats which throw heavy shells and are invulnerable to their rifles and shotguns, and await our coming back from the River.

 

 

 Blossoming trees in the Peach Orchard, with the Manse George Cabin in the background

…My Division is very raw and needs much instruction. Brigade Commanders are [Colonel John A.] McDowell, [Colonel David] Stuart, [Colonel Jesse] Hildebrand, and [Colonel Ralph] Buckland. General Grant commands in chief, and we have a host of other generals, so that I am content to be in a mixed crowd.

I don’t pretend to look ahead far and do not wish to guide events. They are too momentous to be a subject of personal ambition.

We are constantly in the presence of the enemy pickets, but I am satisfied that they will await our coming at Corinth or some point of the Charleston Road [Charleston and Memphis Railroad]. If we don’t get away soon the leaves will be out and the whole country an ambush.

Our letters come very irregularly, I have nothing from you for more than a week but I know you are all well and happy at home and that is a great source of consolation.

My love to all yours. Ever,

W.T. Sherman

Just a few days after this letter, William Tecumseh Sherman found himself in the fight of his life. On April 6, 1862, Sherman would find his rebirth as a military commander during the fighting at Shiloh. Yet, 150 years ago today, he was still a division leader whose sanity many questioned, laying in wait with his men among the blossoming trees and sunshine of Shiloh's spring weather. 



Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865, Edited by Brooks D. Simpson and Jean V. Berlin (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 198-199.

Shiloh's Hornets' Nest

“In many cases, and certainly at Shiloh, the treatment of the events after the fact has had more to do with how we view the battles today than how they were actually fought.” –Timothy B. Smith, “Anatomy of an Icon: Shiloh’s Hornets' Nest in History and Memory,” in The Shiloh Campaign, Edited by Steven Woodworth pgs. 55- 75, (Southern Illinois Press, 2009), 56.

 

Some names and places associated with the Civil War speak for themselves. When one hears Pickett’s Charge or Bloody Lane, one would likely think of Gettysburg or Antietam. Places such as these are seared into our collective historical conscience. They represent both our country at its best and our country at its worst. Another such place is Shiloh’s Hornets' Nest.

View of the Sunken Road, just east of the Hornets' Nest

Sunken Road, running through the Hornets' Nest

Along with Albert Sydney Johnston’s death site, Shiloh's Hornets' Nest stands out as easily one of the most famous parts of the battlefield. Even if one visits Shiloh with just a passing knowledge of the battle and the battlefield, odds are they will be drawn to the Hornets' Nest.

In many ways, this makes perfect sense. The Hornets' Nest is located right smack dab in the middle of the battlefield. It has Shiloh’s sunken road running through it, an excellent place for hikes and walks. It has an abundance of monuments in and around it as well, including several state monuments, and the Confederate Memorial. 

 

One of the many monuments to Iowa regiments which fought in this area

  Union artillery positions, with the forest of the Hornets' Nest in the background

More importantly, for many years, historians have hailed the Hornets' Nest as the most important part of the Battle of Shiloh. According to the standard interpretation, as Federal forces fell back on the right and left flank, remnants of Benjamin Prentiss’s division and several brigades of W.H. L. Wallace’s division held fast, serving as a hindrance for the Confederate advance. Confederates who made gallant attempts to overcome these Union troops later compared the experience of the shot and shell flying through the air to the sounds and stings of hornets, thus creating the name, "The Hornets' Nest." After hours of heated fighting with numerous Confederate frontal assaults and artillery barrages, Federal forces at the Hornets' Nest were overwhelmed. The collapse of supporting troops on their right and left flanks meant that the attacking Confederates enveloped the position entirely; some Federals got away, but over 2,000 Union soldiers surrendered, including Brigadier General Benjamin Prentiss himself (another post on Prentiss's division at Shiloh can be found here). If one takes a short walk into the Hornets' Nest woods, markers locating the surrender sites for many of these regiments can be found (these were easily some of my favorite markers on the battlefield).

 Surrender site of Brigadier General Benjamin Prentiss

 Prentiss surrender site in the Hornets' Nest

David W. Reed, a veteran who fought as a part of an Iowa Regiment in the Hornets' Nest, became the first historian of Shiloh. His work and interpretations of the battle focused heavily on the Hornets Nest, sparking generations of historical works which likewise saw the action there as the central moment of the battle.  The Federal stand at the Hornets' Nest delayed the Confederate advance, allowing Grant time to form his last defensive line near Pittsburg Landing. Thus, Federal forces at the Hornets' Nest may have been captured, but they served a vital and indispensable purpose for Grant’s army that day. This interpretation, advanced first by Reed, picked up by later generations, and carried along by the long running Shiloh park film, is perhaps why the Hornets' Nest is such a famous aspect of the battle. 

 

 Sunken Road, on the Federal right flank in the Hornets' Nest, with Duncan Field to the left

 

 Across Duncan field (to the right), on the afternoon of the 6th, over 50 Confederate guns were gathered for an artillery barrage aimed at driving back Federal troops at the position above.

In more recent interpretations of the battle, historians such as Shiloh Park Historian Stacy Allen and former Shiloh ranger Timothy Smith have advanced theories that the Hornets' Nest was not the key to the battle. In fact, they suggest, using detailed views of the battle, that the heaviest fighting occurred both east and west of the Hornets' Nest, particularly to the west, where the divisions of William T. Sherman and John McClernand fought a brutal struggle against nine Confederate brigades on the Union right flank. Allen and Smith have argued that rather than the stand at the Hornets' Nest, Confederates lost the battle due to confusing terrain, not understanding the position of the Union army, and a lack of cohesion in the Confederate attacks that day. Johnston's battle plan had called for the Confederates to turn the Federal left flank close to the Tennessee River; the Confederates could then push Grant’s army back on the swampy land around Owl Creek, forcing the surrender or destruction of the Army of the Tennessee. Moreover, these historians have argued that the fighting around the Hornets Nest was relatively light compared to elsewhere on the field. While several fierce Confederate charges were made, they were not as great in number as others may claim.

After doing extensive reading on the battle over the last few weeks, I would have to say that I personally agree with the newer interpretation of Shiloh. I find the Hornets' Nest to be a fascinating, compelling, and important part of the battle. But, I don’t see it as the one area where the Union army was saved or turned the Confederate tide. In a battle as vast and complicated as Shiloh, there cannot be just one area where the tide turned (same thing with Gettysburg: sorry Chamberlain, you were great, but so was George Sears Greene on Culp’s Hill). Perhaps it was the fierce fighting of Sherman and McClernand as they fell back, the stubborn stand of Prentiss and Wallace at the Hornets' Nest, the death of Johnston, the firm last defensive line of Grant, and Beauregard’s decision to halt the attack that evening which together conspired to slowly turn the tide from Confederate surprise to Federal defensive stand on April 6. Of course, all of these factors were ultimately influenced by the confusing terrain and the jumbled Confederate attack. It all goes back to the necessity of understanding the terrain and the field to understand how battles were fought and why they ended as they did.

 Park wayside marker for the Hornets' Nest surrender. The portion of the Federal line running along the road in the foreground was held by two brigades of Brig. Gen. W.H.L. Wallace's division

Along with Allen and Smith, the late historian O. Edward Cunninghman’s thesis on the battle, which was published posthumously and edited by Gary Joiner and Timothy Smith, elucidates these newer interpretations of the battle quite nicely. I would highly recommend it for anyone interested. For the other historians who I have mentioned, Shiloh historian Stacy Allen penned a great two part piece on Shiloh that appeared in the Blue and Gray magazine in the late 1980s, which is a must read. Timothy Smith has written a few fantastic books on the battle and the battlefield, among which are The Untold Story of Shiloh, ThisGreat Battlefield of Shiloh, an upcoming book on the fight for Corinth which followed Shiloh (titled Corinth,1862). Smith also penned an essay specifically on the Hornets Nest which can be found in The Shiloh Campaign, edited by well known historian Steven Woodworth. Anyways, these are just a few thoughts from your humble blogger/Antietam ranger, who will be the first to admit his lack of expertise in the field of Shiloh studies (If you can permit me to write in the third person, that is). If you are interested in this topic, feel free to check out some of these outstanding works on the battle that I have thoroughly enjoyed reading over the past few months (you will find that the titles are linked to amazon.com pages for the books). I thought a brief historiographical piece and my thoughts on the topic would be a much more interesting way of showing off my Hornets' Nest pictures. If you are like me, then you find how we interpret Civil War battles to be just as fascinating and important as the actual battle itself.