 On December 2, 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte won one of his greatest victories in the Battle of Austerlitz. The Allied forces attacked the French line early in the morning, and for an hour, the army sparred for control of a small town. While the French line held the Allied forces at bay, Napoleon had 20,000 of his men march up a hill to attack the enemy's center. As they marched, the morning fog concealed their movement. But with perfect timing, with the men at the top of the hill, the sun broke through the fog and revealed to the French soldiers bearing down on the Allied troops. Caught by surprise and seeing the French infantry charging toward them, the Russians fled. The battle became famous, but the sun of Austerlitz became legendary. As the Confederate army at Pittsburgh landing lined up to strike the unsuspecting Union forces, General Albert Sidney Johnston described the scene quote. The two armies lay face to face. The federal host, like a wild boar in his lair, stirred, but not aroused by the unseen danger. It's foe, like a panther hidden in the jungle, tense and wait to spring. Long before dawn, the forest was alive with silent preparations for the contest, and day broke upon a scene so fair that it left its memory on thousands of hearts. The sky was clear overhead, the air fresh, and when the sun rose in full splendor, the advancing host passed the word from lip to lip, that it was the sun of Austerlitz. I'm Chris Calton, and this is the Mises Institute podcast, Historical Controversies. In the last episode, we looked at the preparations for the Battle of Shiloh, which was about to become the bloodiest battle the United States had ever seen up to that point. In today's episode, we will look at the first phase of the battle, beginning with the early morning Confederate ambush. After the battle, Beauregard would describe the opening ambush as an alpine avalanche, and the northern press would run stories about how the Confederates were able to sneak up on sleeping Federals and bayonet them in their tents. Neither description was accurate. The Confederates were running behind schedule, and their advance moved slowly. The troops were green, and the forest was dense with foliage, so it was impossible to maintain the lines. When the first shots were exchanged by skirmishers, you might think this would have alerted more of the Federals that the battle was opening, but most people thought little of the gunfire. General Sherman and Prentice, whose divisions were the first to face the Confederates, thought the skirmisher gunfire was hardly worth investigating. Colonel Everett Peabody, one of the brigade commanders in Prentice's division, thought that something more serious was taking place. In fact, Peabody was so on top of things that while the Confederates were still moving in a position at around 3 a.m., he was already up and trying to prepare for an attack that none of his superior officers believed was coming. Earlier in the night, Prentice had laughed at Peabody for saying he believed the Confederates were preparing to attack, so on his own, he sent out a patrol in the middle of the night. And when he sent the patrol out at 3 a.m., he shook hands with the men and said to the regimental officers, quote, I cannot say anything more to General Prentice, but he will soon see how near I was right. I must do this upon my own responsibility, but I will not live to receive censure or credit for doing so, end quote. So when the shots were exchanged in the morning and as the gunfire grew consistently heavier, General Prentice was angry with Peabody. He told him, quote, you have brought on an attack for which I am unprepared and I shall hold you responsible, end quote. Peabody responded, quote, General, you will soon see that I was not mistaken. So Peabody was the only union leader who believed that the Confederates were about to attack. And when he sent out his patrol to investigate the ambush, his commanding officer actually blamed him for bringing on the attack he was trying to warn about, if you can believe that. So the Confederates did still catch the Northerners by surprise, but not by as much of a surprise as they might have hoped for. And that was because of Colonel Peabody, who bought the Union Army time to form their lines before the Confederates could truly ambush them. By the time the Confederate line made it up to the Union camp, the Federals had infantry and artillery lined up and waiting on them. As the Confederates moved in, one soldier described the initiation of combat, quote, We trampled recklessly over the grass and young sprouts. Beams of sunlight stole a thwart our course. A dreadful roar of musketry broke out from a regiment adjoining ours. It was followed by another further off, and the sound had scarcely died away when regiment after regiment blazed away and made a continuous roll of sound, end quote. Another soldier gave this description of the Federals first coming within his line of sight, quote, I at last saw a row of little globes of pearly smoke streaked with crimson breaking out with spurred of quickness from a long line of bluey figures in front and simultaneously there broke upon our ears an appalling crash of sound. The series of fuselods following one another with startling suddenness which suggested a mountain upheav'd with huge rocks tumbling and thundering down a slope. In and again these loud quick explosions were repeated with increased violence until they rose to the highest pitch of fury. All the world seemed involved in one tremendous ruin, end quote. Because Peabody had been on the ball regarding the attack, the Confederates met with a fiercer resistance than they expected. As Southerners swarmed in around Peabody's line, his Union soldiers jumped up from where they had been taking cover and let off a devastating volley of close range fire. The Confederates were raw and this attack started a panic in some of them. As several Southerners started to run back screaming, retreat! Their panic spread like an infection to the other Southerners who broke line and started a veritable stampede of retreating soldiers. The Southern Generals were able to corral them back together and reform their lines. But because Peabody was the only officer who anticipated the Southern attack, his men had the unfortunate duty of holding off the Confederates while the rest of the Union army, which was taken by surprise as they were sleeping or eating breakfast, could jump in to join the battle. So had it not been for Peabody, the Southerners may very well have pounced on the Northerners while they were sleeping or eating. Instead Peabody's men bought the rest of the army time to grab their weapons. As one soldier, Corporal Leander Stillwell described the surprise at the sound of combat quote. Every man sprung to his feet as if struck with an electric shock and looked inquiringly into one another's faces. There was a low, sullen, continuous roar. There was no mistaking that sound. Suddenly, to the right, there was a long, wavy flash of bright light. Then another, and another. It was the sunlight shining on bayonets, and they were here at last. A long, brown line with muskets at a right shoulder shift, an excellent order, right through the woods they came. End quote. For soldiers like this, who were genuinely caught by surprise, they didn't know how to even join the fighting at first. The smoke was so thick that they couldn't make out any of the soldiers involved to know who to shoot at. As Stillwell's commanding officer started frantically yelling, Shoot, shoot, why don't you shoot? Stillwell replied, Why, Lieutenant, I can't see anything to shoot at. And his officer answered, Shoot, shoot anyhow. Stillwell was only 18 years old, and it was in this fighting that he saw his first comrade killed, and it haunted him. He later wrote, quote, I never shall forget how awfully I felt on seeing for the first time a man killed in battle. There was a man just on my right behind a tree of generous proportions, and I somewhat envied him. He was actively engaged in loading and firing, and was standing up to the work well when I last saw him alive. But all at once, he was lying on his back at the foot of his tree, with his leg doubled under him, motionless, and stone dead. I stared at his body, perfectly horrified. Only a few seconds ago, that man was alive and well, and now he was lying on the ground, done for, forever. The event came near completely upsetting me than anything else that occurred during the entire battle, but I got used to such incidents in the course of the day, end quote. The smoke was so thick that nobody could see who they were shooting at. On the Confederate side, Brigadier General Adley Gladden rode horseback toward the front of his line, so that he could try to get a better survey of the Union position. An artillery shell exploded nearby, knocking him off his horse, and sending a piece of shrapnel into his left arm, nearly tearing it off. A number of his men rushed toward him, and they immediately hauled him off the field where he could get his arm amputated. Gladden would die a few days later. He was hardly the only Confederate to suffer. The testimony of one Southerner paints a vivid picture of the morning combat quote. We could hear heavy missiles whizzing around and above us. Some of them too were distinctly visible. One great solid shot I shall never forget. As it came through the air, it was clearly seen. Captain Footsawd, as at Ricochet, and spurred his horse out of the way. Lieutenant T.J. Dupri was not so fortunate. This same shot grazed his thigh, cut off his saber hanging at his side, and passed through the flank of his noble stallion, which sank lifeless in his tracks. It also killed a second horse in the rear of Lieutenant Dupri. And finally, striking a third horse in the shoulder, felled him to the ground without disabling him, and not even breaking the skin. The ball was now spent. My own horse, Brimmer, and the excitement and joy of battle raised his tail high, and a cannon ball cut away about half of it, bone and all. And ever afterwards, he was known as Bob Teld Brimmer. Many solid shot, we saw striking the ground, bouncing like rubber balls, passing over our heads, making hideous music in their course. End quote. But the Union was taking the worst of it. One 16-year-old soldier recounted his experience. When the battle started, his regiment didn't even have ammunition. When they realized they were being attacked, they had to fall back to get their supply of ammo before joining the fight. When they finally did, the soldier described the fight quote. There was a crash of musketry, the roar of artillery, the yells, the smoke, the jar, the terrible energy. At intervals, we can see the faces of the foe, blackened with powder, and glaring with demonic fury, lost to all human impulses, and full of the fiendish desire to kill. Somebody calls out, everybody for himself. The Confederates were sweeping the ground with canister. The musket fire was awful, the striking of shot on the ground threw up little clouds of dust, and the falling of men all around impressed me with the desire to get out of there. The hair commenced to rise on the back of my neck. I felt sure that a cannonball was close behind me, giving me chase. I never ran fast before, and I never will again. It was a marvel that any of us came out alive. End quote. Peabody was trying to hold the Confederates off with everything he had. He'd already been shot four times, but he stayed on his horse, encouraging his men in trying to maintain the line. He sent his aide to check on a regimen at another end of his line. When the aide returned, he found General Peabody, the only Union commander who did anything to prepare for the ambush, lying across a log where he'd fallen off his horse, killed by a fifth bullet that hit him directly in the head. The Confederates continued to move forward, now charging for Prentice's battery. General Prentice had ridden up by this time and given orders to turn the cannons 90 degrees to hold off the attack on the Union right. The battery commander, Andrew Hickenlooper, later complained that it was a ridiculous move to attempt, quote, in woods filled with dense undergrowth, horses rearing and plunging and dropping in their tracks, which the enemy immediately took advantage of by a direct charge on our now exposed and defenseless left flank, end quote. Hickenlooper later wrote that he had just given the order to carry out Prentice's order, when there comes a crashing volley that sweeps our front as with a scythe, a roar that is deafening and the earth trembles with the shock, end quote. The result was a massacre. Union artillerists went down and the rest fled. Out of the 59 horses in the battery, every single one was either killed or wounded, including the horse that Hickenlooper himself had been riding. The Confederates captured four cannons from their charge. Peabody's troops did a good job of slowing the Confederates down while the rest of the Union army got their act together, but they couldn't hold off the massive line of charging soldiers. The Union line was collapsing. One Confederate later wrote, quote, my blood run cold and I felt my frame tremble to see the dead and hear the groans of the wounded. But in a few minutes, they ran like wild turkeys and left their tents and baggage and oppositions, end quote. When the Confederates overtook the Union camp where the men had been preparing breakfast though, their advance lost momentum. Instead of chasing retreating Yankees, the Southern soldiers, famished, stopped to help themselves to the abandoned food that's still sat over the fires. They also helped themselves to whatever they could find in the Yankee tents. One soldier admitted, quote, I had the momentary impression that with the capture of the first camp, the battle was well nigh over, end quote. Another soldier thought the plundering was an embarrassment later writing, quote, it was disgraceful to our army to see men by hundreds plundering while their brethren and arms were being struck down every minute, end quote. But the officers did what they could to keep their men pressing forward. Albert Sidney Johnston himself showed up on the scene and urged the soldiers onward. Officers were generally more disciplined when it came to plunder than the regular soldiers but Johnston was appalled when he found one of his lower officers, a lieutenant, taking part in the plunder of Union tents. The lieutenant came out of the tent with an arm load of booty only to find Johnston staring disapprovingly down at him from his horse. None of that, sir, Johnston scolded. We are not here for plunder. I don't know how the young officer reacted but his despondency must have been shown on his face after being scolded by such a high ranking general because Johnston quickly took pity on him. Softening his hone, he took a small tin cup from the lieutenant's pile of booty, smiled, and said, quote, let this be my share of the spoils today, end quote. Johnston kept the tin cup with him through the rest of the battle, sometimes raising it over his head as if it were a sword or clanging it against a soldier's bayonet as he gave orders and encouragement. For civilians, the fallout from the battle started almost as soon as the battle itself began. Nine-year-old Elsie Duncan, whose father owned some of the land that the battle was being fought over, went outside to her family's garden on the morning of the sixth. It was a beautiful day. The rain hadn't come yet. She couldn't see the battle but she could hear it, quote. When I heard the cannons roar and the guns popping and the horses screaming, it seemed as if everything was lost. It was terrible heart-rending. It was too much for my poor little heart to stand. When I went back into the house, I saw that my father had come home. He was bending over the bed and mother was tearing a cloth into strips. I went into the room and saw a rebel soldier boy all shot up. I gave one look and saw it was one of our neighbor boys. I couldn't bear to look at him. When they were through with him, his folks came and took him home. The fighting began at our gate just past the house. As the battle raged, it got further away, leaving dead men and horses behind, end quote. Before the battle, Elsie Duncan attended school at the Shiloh Church. The church was a small log building where the locals gathered for church and the younger children had school. Elsie remembered the last school event they held at the Shiloh Church before the battle. The adults watched as the kids put on a concert with the little girls all dressed in red, white, and blue outfits. Duncan participated in the event, quote. I spoke a bit about Abe Lincoln's goose that laid the golden egg. That was the South. And when he squeezed too hard, it ran away. Then another little girl came out waving the Confederate flag and the girls sang Dixie. Then everything was in an uproar. Men were throwing their hats up, yelling Hurrah for Jefferson Davis and the Southern Confederacy. Many brave hearts that were there that night went forth to fight that never came back or hobbled home on crutches. Many with arms and legs left on bloody battlefields to go on through life with mangled bodies and stricken lives, end quote. Now on April 6th, 1862, William Tecumseh Sherman and his division of Union troops were surrounding the old log church. While Prentice was trying to keep his hastily formed line together at the Union center, Sherman was having his own problems on the right. Like Prentice, Sherman had received and dismissed reports of a coming Confederate attack. Only a moment after Sherman said, my God, we are attacked. Sherman's orderly was knocked off his horse where Sherman watched him spurt blood from the bullet wound he had just suffered. The attack against Sherman's division was headed by Brigadier General Patrick Claiborne who would eventually earn the nickname the Stonewall of the West for his battlefield performance. As the Confederates moved on Sherman's division, the officers hastily formed a line to meet them. The Federals were assisted by the rough terrain that Claiborne had to lead his men through. They had to move uphill through the wooded foliage and muddy marsh of Pittsburgh landing. For a time, the Union line held off the Confederates well. One soldier wrote, quote, we mowed them down by hundreds and repelled their charge made up into our camp and drove them back over the run leaving many of their comrades behind, end quote. Claiborne led a number of assaults up the hill toward Sherman's camp, but they were all unsuccessful. As dozens of Confederates, including some regimental officers fell, the Confederates were disheartened. One later wrote, quote, the mortification of a repulse in our first regular engagement was extreme. Some wept, some cursed, and others lamented the death of some of our bravest officers and men and not a few drifted to the rear, end quote. But that isn't to say that the Union line was having an easy time. At one point, one of the regimental commanders, Colonel Jesse Appler, panicked. Even as his men were holding off the Confederate advance, he started yelling, retreat boys and save yourself. He took off himself and several of his soldiers followed him, though others stayed to fight, encouraged to stand their ground by other officers. Appler himself would not be found again until after the battle was over. But Clayburn's attack was hardly anything more than a large-scale human sacrifice of his men. They fell by the hundreds and gained no ground. Those who survived fell back. Some of them weeping, others cursing, and all of them traumatized by their first battlefield experience. One Union soldier couldn't believe that the rebels were throwing themselves at the enemy the way they were continuing to charge even as they were cut to pieces. He wrote, quote, if they were willing to do that to themselves, what would they have done to us? End quote. But Clayburn's luck changed when Braxton Bragg showed up with nearly his entire army corps, two divisions compared to Clayburn's single brigade. The only one of Bragg's brigade that wasn't with him was the one led by Brigadier General Adley Gladden, who was being mortally wounded on the other side of the battlefield. So after Clayburn's troops had been cut to ribbons, Bragg's fresh troops were ready to overwhelm Sherman's line. Now Sherman's line was collapsing. One of Sherman's brigade leaders, Colonel Jesse Hildebrand, was 61 years old at the time of the battle. According to one soldier present, Hildebrand, quote, had displayed the most reckless gallantry, end quote. But when his regiments were cut down, he believed they were done, so he rode off and made himself available as a staff officer for General McLernand. What he didn't realize was that out of his 2,500 man brigade, 400 of them were still on the field trying to fight. They were now on the battlefield without a commander. Even though the Confederates now had new battle flags to distinguish themselves from US troops, the uniforms still created troop confusion, much like we've seen in previous battles. At one point, Lieutenant Ephraim Dawes, who left a great account of this battle, went up to a soldier and asked if the man knew where his regiment was. The soldier replied, I don't know, I was captured this morning and just escaped. Dawes replied, come with us. No, the soldier answered, I'm going with this regiment. He pointed to a group in blue uniforms, marching neatly to the beat of their drummer boy. Dawes, recounting the tale later, said quote, it did not seem possible that a Union regiment in such condition could be coming from the battle lined, end quote. Do the soldier, he said, they are rebels. The soldier wasn't convinced, they're not, he said. But as the words left his mouth, the wind blew so hard that the regiment's flag could be better seen. It was the Louisiana state flag. These troops, it turned out, were the Orleans guards, a French Creole regiment that still wore their traditional blue militia uniforms. So Dawes and the small group of men with him, including the soldier that wanted to join the Orleans guard, ran off and found one of Sherman's staff officers. Where's our brigade, Dawes asked the officer. I don't know where anybody is, the officer replied. And as he spoke, he noticed that underneath the officer's brown coat was a gray Confederate uniform. The Confederate officer, facing the same confusion as Dawes, didn't realize he was speaking to a group of Union soldiers but before either side could react. A shot of canister came flying in and shot the officer's horse out from under him, giving Dawes the chance to run off. He only later realized that he was speaking to the Confederate general Thomas Hindman. But Sherman's line was breaking at this point as the newly arrived Confederates swarmed a field like bees, according to one Northerner's description. Sherman ordered his men to fall back. As they were treated, they could hear Southerners yelling things like bull run and get you damned Yankees. As one officer described it, quote, they were pouring in by the thousands through the camp, flanking us entirely, end quote. I mentioned earlier that Sherman's division had one detached brigade holding down the left end of the Union line. This was David Stewart's small brigade. It consisted of less than 1,000 men. Some estimates place it at no more than 600 and Stewart's battery had been reassigned to W. H. L. Wallace's division prior to the battle. Prentice's division separated Stewart from the rest of Sherman's division. So this was the meager force that David Stewart had to hold off a Confederate attack of roughly 3,600 rebels. The idea of holding off the overwhelming onslaught of Confederate soldiers was absurd but Stewart and his brigade held their ground surprisingly well before they were finally driven back. Stewart had the respect of his men and as they started to panic and flee, he was able to turn them back toward the enemy, a power that many brigade commanders lacked when dealing with panic-stricken soldiers fighting their first battle. But the standoff, as impressive as it must have been, was all the bloodier for it. Stewart's brigade held their ground for two hours against the Southerners. The experience was horrifying when one private, Robert Oliver, was taking cover behind a log to reload his gun when one of his regiment's officers came up beside him. As Oliver tells the story, the officer quote, "'Nelt on one knee with the point of his sword on the ground saying, "'Oliver, as soon as you get your gun loaded, "'take Ainsbury,' a wounded soldier in the regiment, "'to the rear.' Then he was hit with a canister shot in the head. He hung to the hilt of his sword until his hand came to the ground, bending the sword double. And when he let go, it bounded six feet into the air. That was the last command he ever gave." End quote. But Oliver did as he was told. He found the wounded soldier and helped him up, handing him off to another soldier headed to the rear. As Oliver was returning to the battle, though, he heard a familiar voice call out, "'Robert, for God's sake, don't leave me.'" And Oliver's words, quote, "'I looked back and saw James D. Godwin of my regiment. "'He had everything off except his pants, "'and he was as red as if he had been dipped "'into a barrel of blood. "'I said, never. "'Put your arm around me, "'and I will do the best I can for you.'" As Oliver helped carry Godwin to the rear, he could fill more bullets hitting his friend. When he finally dropped him off with a surgeon, quote, upon cutting the shirt off to my whore, there were seven bullet holes in that boy, not yet 17 years old, end quote. Finally, Stuart had enough and he ordered his men to withdraw. But this meant crossing another ravine, forcing the men to expose themselves to enemy fire. As one soldier explained, quote, "'Almost instantly, the ground we had left "'was occupied by swarms of exultant and yelling rebels, "'who now, without danger to themselves, "'poured a shower of bullets down a pond "'and among the fugitives,' end quote." The man who gave this testimony nearly lost his life in the battle. After taking a bullet to the leg, another soldier, Parker Bagley, helped him limp away from the danger zone. With his arms long across his friend's shoulder, quote, a burning sensation passed along my back and we both fell together. The bullet hit crosswise under the shoulder and passed on, killing poor Bagley. Lying beneath him, I could feel his hot blood run down my side and hear his dying groan, end quote. Another Union survivor later said, quote, "'Only the excitement of battle "'could sustain a man in the midst of such carnage. "'As man after man was shot down and mutilated, "'a feeling of perfect horror came over me at times "'and I berated the powers that placed us in such a position "'and left us alone to our fate. "'Can it be wondered at when 43 out of 64 "'of my own company were killed or wounded "'in that short time,' end quote." One of the confederates on the scene later said, quote, "'It was like shooting into a flock of sheep.'" The episode could have been pulled straight out of a horror movie for the Union men involved as they suffered enormous casualties. Prior to the battle, Grant had removed Stuart's battery and reassigned it to another division. So with no battery and a brigade of less than 1,000 men against more than 3,000 Confederates, Stuart managed to hold the Union left until mid-afternoon. When the battle started, Ulysses S. Grant was nine miles away, sitting comfortably at the Cherry Mansion, where he was enjoying the hospitality of William Cherry, a Union supporter, and his wife Anne, who favored the Confederacy. 31 years after the battle, Miss Cherry gave an account of the opening of the battle. She was responding to a letter asking about Grant's condition at the time. She wrote back, quote, "'On the date mentioned, I believe "'General Grant was thoroughly sober. "'He was at my breakfast table "'when he heard the report from a cannon. "'Holding, untasted, a cup of coffee, "'he paused in the conversation "'to listen a moment at the report of another cannon. "'He hastily arose, saying to his staff officers, "'Gentlemen, the ball is in motion. "'Let's be off.' "'His flagship,' as he called his special steamboat, "'was lying at the wharf, and in 15 minutes, "'he, staff officers, orderlies, clerks, "'and horses had embarked," end quote. Grant was in poor condition to hurry to the battle. He had recently fallen off his horse during a rainstorm, spraining his ankle badly enough that he was forced to use crutches while it healed. As he hobbled off the steamboat, finally having arrived on the battlefield hours after the fighting began, he was horrified by what he saw. Wounded men were carried past him on stretchers while wagons of ammunition were racing in the other direction to resupply the soldiers in combat. "'We are whipped, we have been cut to pieces,' one soldier yelled as Grant passed him. Grant, now on horseback, where the crutches couldn't slow him down, raced ahead with his staff while shells landed around them. He found General Sherman near Shiloh Church. It was roughly 10 in the morning, right as the union line was breaking. Sherman looked grim, his uniform stained with dirt and blood. This was the first battlefield meeting between the two generals. One of Grant's aides turned to him. "'General, this thing looks pretty squally, don't it?' Grant replied, "'Well, not so very bad. We've got to fight against time now. Wallace must be here very soon.' He was referring to Lou Wallace, who was on his way to Pittsburgh landing at that moment, bringing reinforcements with him. Grant's recollection of this moment speaks to how much respect Sherman earned at the meeting. Grant wrote, "'This point was the key to our position and was held by Sherman. His division was wholly raw, no part of it ever having been in an engagement. But I thought this deficiency was more than made up by the superiority of the commander.'" End quote. Grant asked Sherman what he needed and Sherman replied that his men needed more ammo. The ammunition wagons were already on their way, Grant said, and he told Sherman that he was making an admirable stand against the enemy. He later wrote when speaking about the day's fighting, quote, "'During the whole of Sunday, I was continuously engaged in passing from one part of the field to another, giving directions to division commanders. And thus moving along the line, however, I never deemed it important to stay along with Sherman. Although his troops were then under fire for this first time, their commander, by his constant presence with them, inspired a confidence in officers and men that enabled them to render services on the bloody battlefield worthy of the best of veterans." End quote. This is undoubtedly an important moment in the friendship that Grant and Sherman would form during the course of the war. Sherman had won Grant's respect. The union line was breaking, but Grant was now in the field and reinforcements from both Lou Wallace and Don Carlos Buell were expected to arrive at any moment. But the fighting had only just begun and it would become even more intense as the day wore on. We will continue this story in the next episode. Historical Controversies is a production of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. If you would like to support the show, please subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher and leave a positive review. You can also support the show financially by donating at Mises.org slash SupportHC. If you would like to explore the rest of our content, please visit Mises.org. That's M-I-S-E-S dot O-R-G.