 One of Ulysses S. Grant's division commanders was Brigadier General William H. L. Wallace. The names of Shiloh can be confusing, since another division commander was Major General Lou Wallace, so there were two different Wallace's serving as commanders of Grant's second and third division respectively. William Wallace had actually taken over the second division while Grant's former West Point teacher, General Charles Smith, was sick. You may remember that Smith was Henry Halleck's choice to replace Grant, but even if Halleck had gotten his way, Grant probably would have been in charge at Shiloh anyway, because Smith had injured his foot between battles. After it became infected, he came down with dysentery, and as anybody who has ever played the old Oregon Trail computer game knows, people tend to die from dysentery. Smith would linger until April 25th when, like so many Civil War casualties, his life would be claimed by illness rather than combat injuries. So William Wallace was now in charge of Smith's division, and his wife, Anne, was visiting him at Pittsburgh Landing when the Battle of Shiloh broke out. As we saw in the Battle of Bull Run, it was not uncommon for officers, spouses, to join them during their battlefield campaigns at the start of the Civil War. But of course, prior to Shiloh, the United States had never seen a battle, or even an entire war, quite as bloody as what took place on April 6th and 7th of 1862. Anne Wallace believed that she was there to visit her husband, but as wounded men were brought to the hospital ships on the river, she realized that she had to do what she could to help. Anne Wallace wasn't the only woman on board helping to care for the sick and wounded soldiers who quickly began to crowd the hospital ships around Pittsburgh Landing, but unlike the others, she had not been prepared to serve as a nurse. When she arrived, she thought she was going to visit William during the peaceful lull at Pittsburgh Landing. But when her steamer pulled up, she could already hear the exchange of a gunfire in the distance. This was still early in the morning, and the people on the river assured her that it was just pickets returning from their night watch. Because the pickets used barrel loaded weapons, the only way to unload their guns at the end of their shift was to discharge it. Though early morning gunfire was hardly a cause for alarm, but as Anne Wallace was putting on her gloves and coat to go see her husband, an officer from an Illinois regiment, Captain Coates, said that he should go and see where William was first, and when he returned, he could lead her to him. So Anne stayed on the boat and waited on the officer's return. As she later recalled the experience, quote, Before half an hour, Captain Coates came back wounded in two places. One painful wound in the hand, but neither of them dangerous. I learned that the big battle was in progress and that my husband had moved with his command to the front. The only thing then to do was to wait where I was. That long day on the steamboat, its scenes and sensations are beyond description. The wounded were brought by hundreds onto the boat. Some could sit and stand about and talk, others helpless and pallid, but all without exception, heroic in their fortitude. I did not hear a groan or murmur except those unconscious under influence of chloroform or sleep. I passed from place to place holding water and handing bandages for the surgeons until it became so crowded, I felt I was in the way, end quote. As she tended to the soldiers, we can only imagine that she must have been keeping a worried eye out for her husband, who as far as she knew, could be joining the rest of the wounded any time. She had not been prepared for this. Perhaps as a grim reminder of the fate that might await her, another officer's wife was also there, helping to care for the wounded. This was Mary Newcomb. During the battle of Fort Henry, Mary's husband was part of the brigade led by William Wallace prior to his taking over Grant's Second Division, so the men would have known each other. But Newcomb's husband had been killed at Fort Henry. After his death, Mary decided to continue volunteering, working unofficially as the nurse for her husband's regiment. I don't know what Anne thought of Mary's presence, or if they even interacted. But it's hard to believe that Anne Wallace never considered a Mary's situation while she tended to wounded soldiers and awaited on word from her husband, who was on the front lines of the battle. But the worries she faced and the horrors she saw must have been nothing to the experiences of the soldiers she saw, which perhaps helped her keep herself together. In the same letter I quoted a minute ago, she wrote, As I sat there, I saw these shells strike the sides of other steamers and cut off limbs of trees near where the road was made, and pass buzzing across our deck. I felt dazed and horrified, yet enthused by some means, so I was not afraid, but felt like a soldier. I knew the danger, but felt lifted above fear of it. The panic-stricken, raw troops seemed perfectly insane. The steamer had to keep a slight distance from the shore, or it would have been swamped by the rush of officers and men. At one time, an officer got aboard and ordered the pilot to touch shore and take his men on board. He threatened the pilot with his pistol. I sat nearby. The only person on deck except the pilot and this officer. The pilot pretended to obey him, but really did not, thus giving the frenzy demand time enough to come to his senses. As the shot and shell whizzed about, I felt it would be safer below. But the feeling that exhibition of fear on my part would make it a little harder for that pilot to stand at his post kept me from going down." Even without William on the field, Anne Wallace's father was a colonel on the field at Pittsburgh Landing. Both of her brothers were lower ranking officers as well, and even two of William's brothers and additional extended family members were in the battle. At one point, she spoke to an army chaplain that she and her husband knew from back home. When she went up to him, his face was grim. This is an awful battle, he said to her. Morbidly he added, you have a great many relations on this field. You cannot hope to see them all come home safe. She told him, optimistically, that they had all been at the battle of Fort Donaldson as well when they survived that. As she walked away, Button repeated, it is an awful battle. When she turned around and looked at him again, as she tells the story, quote, the dread truth fell on my heart like a thunderbolt, like the cold hand of steel. Words needed not to tell it. It was before me. I was stunned, chilled, almost paralyzed. Suffering came hours afterwards. Very soon, Brother Cyrus came to me self-charged with the duty of telling me my life had been darkened. My husband was dead, and the enemy had possession of the ground where he lay. It was all they could tell me, but it was enough. I'm Chris Calton, and this is the Mises Institute podcast of historical controversies. In the previous episode, we looked at the brutal first few hours of the Battle of Shiloh, in which the Confederates attempted to ambush the Union troops camped out at Pittsburgh Landing. Although the ambush itself was only partially successful, as a lone Union officer suspected the attack and formed a line to defend against them, the Confederates managed to break the entire Union line and take the ground they had been occupying. Grant was away from the battlefield when the battle began, and when he arrived a little before noon, his army seemed to be losing the battle, not unlike the situation he faced when he missed a morning attack at Donaldson. But Grant also knew that reinforcements from both Lou Wallace and Don Carlos Buell were on the way, and if they arrived in time, they could turn the tide of the battle in Union favor. As we will see, the brutal Battle of Shiloh had only just begun. While Stuart's men were fighting desperately to hold the Union left, as we saw at the end of the previous episode, the rest of the line was gaining reinforcements. Three fresh Union divisions showed up to join the fight, led respectively by John McLernand, William H. L. Wallace, and Stephen Holbert. Although Sherman and Prentice had fallen back, they maintained the line as best they could, and the new divisions moved in to fill the gaps. But the Confederates had only sent a portion of their forces to initiate the battle as well. So while the three new Union divisions were moving into position, nine Confederate brigades were getting ready for a second assault. The terrain that the battlefield took place on can be described as an hourglass, shaped by hills in the creek that ran through the area connecting the Tennessee River. The battle began at the southern end of the hourglass, which spanned roughly three miles between two different creeks. As the Union line fell back, as we covered in the previous episode, they were forced to reposition in the narrowest part of the hourglass, sandwiched between two other small creeks that ran downhill toward each other on either side. As the new Union reinforcements came in, the Union line compressed to fit around the mouths of this narrow terrain, so that the Union center was situated at the smallest portion of the hourglass. This is where the bulk of each army would meet each other in battle, and it would be here that the Battle of Shiloh would reach its bloodiest levels. At one point during the fighting, one Confederate force was repelled by a terrible volley of Union fire, prompting one Southerner to exclaim, it's a Hornets Nest in there. From that point on, the Confederates started referring to this area as the Hornets Nest, a name that is now commemorated at the site of the battle with a sign that reads Hornets Nest, center of the Union line. Tactically, this battle is a mess to follow, but the tactics aren't really the story of the Battle of Shiloh. When these two armies faced each other in and near the Hornets Nest, both sides suffered devastating losses, both in terms of numbers and officers. Since Grant had arrived on the battlefield, he had spent his time moving between his commanders, receiving updates and giving orders. DePrentis, whose division formed the Union center from the start of the battle before falling back, Grant ordered him to hold the new center at all costs. To support him, William H. L. Wallace moved to his left, and the two divisions spread across the Hornets Nest. To the left of Prentis was now Brigadier General Steven Holbert, with his division covering the famous Peach Orchard, where his men saw combat. And on the other side of the Union right was held by McLernand and Sherman, but it was at the center, the Hornets Nest, that the heaviest fighting would concentrate. The Confederates moving in on them came from the wider part of the triangle, stretched across maybe three miles, but moving closer together as they advanced. Their move was more difficult in practice than it would look on paper. They had to deal with the thick forest and smoke surrounding them. And as they moved in from each side, troop confusion abounded. In one case, two different regiments were moving in on a Union battery when another line of Confederates showed up behind them. The new Confederates mistook the first two regiments for Union soldiers and fired off a volley that claimed at least five lives from their fellow Southerners in addition to wounding several more. When an officer from one of the regiments rode up in order to cease fire, the Confederates fired another volley and one of the bullets hit the officer's horse. The animal panicked and bucked him, but his foot caught on the stirrup and the horse dragged him painfully away from the fight. In one case of friendly fire, the Confederate involved seemed almost to be asking for his comrades to shoot him. One of the blue-clad Louisiana officers captured a Union banner and vangloriously tied it around his waist and even retrieved a Union cap and put it on. He then rode toward the rear of the Confederate line, proudly displaying his Union flag and cap in his own blue militia uniform when somebody yelled out, here's your Yankee, which prompted a group of fellow Louisianans to fire at him with some of their bullets hitting other nearby Confederates, killing and wounded at least 27 men from friendly fire. According to one soldier, the only reason they didn't keep firing is because they saw, quote, a woman and a sun bonnet who compelled us to restrain ourselves out of regard for her safety, end quote. The reasons for the woman showing up on the field in the middle of the battle or lost to history, but it's likely that she was looking for her children who may have been recruited by one side or the other shortly prior to the fight. According to the testimony of a local girl who was only nine years old at the time and lived on a house right on the battlefield, one local woman at her house was, quote, screaming and wringing her hands and mother was trying to quiet her. She could not do anything with her. She said that she had two sons in the battle, one on each side fighting against each other, end quote. There's no evidence to suggest to that this woman was the same one roaming around the battlefield, though it would be possible. It's just as likely that they are two different women in similar situations. If friendly fire didn't cut down the Southerners, Union fire might. Major General Ben Chetham and his division were among the first to face the Union at the Hornet's Nest. They found themselves facing an onslaught of bullets and cannonballs. Dozens of men fell in the initial attack, but the one that most affected Chetham was a young boy named John Campbell who had been serving as the general's aide to camp. Ben Chetham's word, the poor kid, quote, fell dead, his entire head having been carried away by a cannon shot, end quote. The Confederates sent in one brigade after another to try to break the Union's center and each time they got pushed back in a bloody exchange. It's hard to do justice with words, the carnage that was taking place at Pittsburgh Landing, as bodies piled up on top of each other. The soldiers were pressed together so tightly that the smoke from the thousands of rifles made it impossible to see or breathe and the thick forest blocked any wind from blowing it away. Their eyes watered and their nostrils burned as they had to try to peer through the cloud to make sure they were shooting at an enemy or that an enemy wasn't about to shoot them. At one point, according to the depressing testimony of one soldier, quote, a horse galloped through the woods nearby. Its belly ripped open and intestines trailing. It became entangled in its own guts and fell to the ground, end quote. For those who fell during the fighting of the Hornets Nest, I would not be dramatizing to say that the dead were the lucky ones. Many of the men who are now littering the ground were still alive but too wounded to move. The ground was covered with dry dead leaves from the previous autumn and the artillery sent sparks that ignited brush fires that spread around the battlefield, indiscriminately engulfing the dead and wounded who couldn't escape. Finally, frustrated with the inability to break the Union line, Braxton Bragg ordered a bayonet charge with Colonel Randall Gibson's brigade. Gibson protested to saying it was reckless. He wanted artillery, which his men currently did not have supporting them, but Bragg stood by his orders and with no artillery support, Gibson led his men in three consecutive bayonet charges, none of which succeeded in breaking the Union line. His men were cut to pieces. One cannonball tore through a line of six men killing each of them and sending bits of their insides, splattering gruesomely against their friends. One regimental officer who had a bullet shoot through one cheek and out the other, later said that Bragg sacrificed the brigade for the useless charges. That man was Colonel H.W. Allen and he would survive the war to eventually serve as governor of Louisiana. And Allen was not wrong. Gibson's 2,300-man brigade suffered nearly 700 casualties during the Battle of Shiloh. In his battlefield report, Bragg would blame the failed charges on Gibson's incompetence, calling him a quote, arrogant coward. While Braxton Bragg led the assault on the center, General Beauregard and Johnston led the charges on each flank. Beauregard faced Sherman and McLernan on the Union right and Johnston led the charge against Hurlbut at the Peach Orchard on the Union left. Also facing the Union left was former U.S. Vice President John C. Breckenridge, who commanded Johnston's reserve corps, which consisted of three sizable brigades, including several batteries and three cavalry regiments. On the Union right, Sherman and McLernan were struggling. The Union forces had been driven back and they could hardly organize a counterattack with all the officers they had falling. This doesn't mean that the Southerners were having an easy time of it, as plenty of Confederates were falling as well. But while both sides lost officers, the Union losses here disproportionately left regiments without commanders. At stake were the Union cannons that the Southerners were working to take possession of. Chaos reigned at Sherman's end as panicking horses broke free from their harnesses and started running around, riderless and scared, leaving several cannons immobile. Sherman and McLernan tried desperately to reform their lines, but this was a monumental task for officers dealing with green troops facing heavy fire. Prior to the battle, Sherman had a conversation with a young staff officer who, having grown bored of the peace at Pittsburgh Landing, was eager to attack the enemy. Now in the middle of the battle, Sherman found him once again and remembered his eagerness to fight. Well, my boy, Sherman said to him, didn't I promise you all the fighting you could do? The young staff officer apparently now had his fill of combat. He replied that he would now gladly relieve Sherman of any further obligation under that promise. Many Union regiments stood and tried to hold off the attacking enemy, but the effort was futile. The Confederates swarmed in and drove the Yankees back even more. They failed to pursue, however, apparently satisfied with having captured 14 Union cannons. But like a pendulum, Sherman and McLernan swung back for a counterattack, reclaiming the ground they had lost. McLernan observed that, quote, the ground was almost literally covered with dead bodies, chiefly of the enemy, end quote. But the pendulum swung back once more with a new Confederate attack. The fighting this time lasted for two hours before the Union right finally broke. On the other side of the battlefield, Breckinridge was sending a brigade against the Federals of the Pea Georgia. The brigade leading the charge was commanded by Colonel Winfield Statham. Here, the Confederates had a tougher time than those who captured the batteries from Sherman and McLernan. When Statham led his men over the hill toward the enemy, they immediately faced a terrible volley of gunfire that dropped dozens of soldiers and drove Statham's brigade back. Now taking shelter where they could, they started exchanging fire and men dropped on both sides, but no ground was gained. Statham tried to order his men forward, but the soldiers refused to abandon the relative safety of whatever cover they had found. From a distance, General Johnston saw Statham's attack falter and he believed he had to do something. He turned to Isham Harris, the exiled governor of Tennessee, and said of the Union soldiers, quote, those fellows are making a stubborn stand here. I'll have to put the bayonet to them, end quote. Johnston started organizing a force of soldiers to send in a battle and by two in the afternoon, he believed he was ready. He had four brigades lined up and Johnston was ready to initiate what would be the first coordinated attack of the battle. If he could break the Union right flank, he could then join Bragg in assaulting the center and the battle would be won. As he sat on his horse, Johnston confidently turned to his aide and said, quote, that checkmates them. His aide agreed, yes, sir, that meets them. But Breckinridge came to Johnston and reported that he had a regiment from Tennessee who was refusing to fight. They'd seen enough bloodshed to know they wanted no part in it. Johnston was enraged at the idea that he had cowards at his rank. He sent Breckinridge to get them ready to fight. But when the former vice president returned, he shamefully announced that now the entire brigade was refusing to go into battle. Hearing that the fear was spreading through the troops, Johnston decided to lead the charge himself. He and Breckinridge rode to the front of the line where he gave the men orders and encouragement. He rode up and down the line of soldiers, clinking his tin cup, the spoils of war that he took in the previous episode against the bayonets of his men. These must do the work, he said, referring to the bayonets. Men, they are stubborn. We must use the bayonet. He then stopped at the center of the line and shouted, I will lead you. When Johnston charged in with four southern brigades behind him, the Federals could no longer hold their ground. They fell back half a mile and the Union line at the hornet's nest started to collapse. This was about the same time that the Confederates, who had been tied up with stewards to attach brigade from Sherman's division, had finally forced the Yankees back and now they were joining the attack at the center as well. The attack was epic and destructive. Even for the Union men facing the charging Confederates, the attack was almost awe-inspiring. One soldier from Iowa later described the scene, quote, It was a splendid sight, those men in the face of death, closing and dressing their ranks, hedges of bayonets gleaming above them and their proud banners waving in the breeze. Our guns, shotted with canister, made great gaps in their ranks, which rapidly closed, not a man faltering in his place. And now the field of officers waved their hats. A shout arose and that column, splendidly aligned, took the double quick and moved on magnificently. We could not repress exclamations of admiration, end quote. Like the rest of the battle, the scene was a bloodbath and not just for the soldiers. At one point, a herd of goats wandered helplessly into the middle of the battlefield. One soldier from Tennessee later wondered, quote, Why a soldier would shoot at a goat when so many of the enemy were present to shoot, end quote. Most likely the men were not shooting at goats, they were just shooting, their vision obscured by the forest and the smoke and the chaos of battle. Either way, the entire herd of goats was shot down in minutes. More fire started and as one soldier described it, quote, Dead and dying were soon enveloped in a general conflagration, end quote. Another soldier later recalled that, quote, The flesh had been burned from their set teeth, giving them a horrible grin. General Hurdlebutt was forced back by the Confederate charge, but he retreated slowly, costing the Southerners precious daylight. When he sent one of his staff officers, LD Benner, to ride his horse across the battlefield to deliver an order, the poor horse took a bullet that didn't quite kill him. For Benner, this may have been the toughest loss he faced in the entire battle. As he later wrote, quote, I could have cried when I lost him. He was not dead and sooner than see him suffer, I stepped around and put a pistol ball through his head. I was sorry to lose him as he was a splendid horse, end quote. But for all the carnage, the charge was going well for the Confederates. When Isham Harris rode up to Johnston after the successful push, the Tennessee governor said, quote, I had never in my life seen him looking more bright, joyous and happy, end quote. The battle was still raging, but the Confederates clearly had the upper hand. Johnston's horse had taken a number of bullets but was still standing, and Johnston had taken three hits himself, though none of them seemed to be serious. Johnston turned to Harris and said, quote, Governor, they came very near to putting me out of combat in that charge. He then pointed to his boot, where the leather was flapping after having been ripped apart by a mini-ball. When Harris asked if the general was wounded, Johnston replied that he was not. He then ordered Harris to ride over to Colonel Statham and order him to take care of the Union battery that was still harassing the Southerners. Now back in 1837, Johnston participated in a duel against Brigadier General Felix Huston over who would get to lead the Army of Texas. Johnston was wounded in the duel and the pistol ball that hit him severed the sciatic nerve in his right leg, leaving it numb. As a result, Johnston was unaware, 25 years later, the Battle of Shiloh, that he had taken a bullet in his numbed leg and the bullet had cut open an artery. Immune to the pain, Johnston had no idea as he gave orders to Governor Harris that he was bleeding to death on top of his horse. When Harris returned from delivering the orders to Statham, he found the general slumped over, weak from blood loss. General, are you wounded? Harris asked. Yes, Johnston replied. And I fear seriously. These were the last words Albert Sidney Johnston ever uttered. Perhaps he would have survived had it not been for a decision he made earlier in the day when Johnston sent his personal surgeon, DW Yandel, to care for the wounded prisoners of the 18th Wisconsin Regiment. When Johnston gave the order, Yandel protested. His duty was to keep Johnston alive, not union prisoners. But Johnston insisted, saying, quote, No, these men were our enemies, but are our prisoners now and deserve our protection, end quote. Now, as Harris sent for Yandel, he was far back at the Confederate camp, carrying out Johnston's order instead of close by where he could potentially stop the bleeding. Of course, it's likely Johnston would have died anyway, especially given how long it took him to even realize he was seriously wounded. It's also possible that the story of Johnston's order to a surgeon was embellished reflect favorably on him after his death, which isn't exactly uncommon in these situations. Though it was standard to care for enemy wounded, so the story isn't unbelievable either. But none of this would matter. Johnston went limp. The reins fell from his hand. And Harris had to help Johnston off his horse, sitting him down against a nearby oak tree. Harris asked Johnston where he was wounded, but Johnston was no longer able to speak. Harris ripped open the general's shirt, but found no injury. Finally, he saw blood pooling on the ground behind Johnston's knee. But he didn't imagine that could be the injury that was taking the general's life. When more of Johnston's aides arrived, Harris tried to pour some brandy down his throat, but it merely dribbled down Johnston's chin. Minutes later, the Confederacy's second highest ranking general had finally bled to death. He would be the highest ranking officer to die during the entire civil war, Union or Confederate. Beauregard, upon receiving word that he was now the commanding officer, chose to continue the attack, but the day was almost spent. After hours of a terrible struggle, the Union line finally broke and the Confederates took the hornet's nest. The Confederates had won the day, but it was a peeric victory. It was also a very temporary one. As the Northerners were being driven back, Don Carlos Buell was finally arriving, bringing with him nearly 20,000 fresh troops. Lou Wallace and his 7,200 men also finally arrived, having been waiting elsewhere for official orders. Lou Wallace's situation is actually a matter of debate and following the original narrative of Grant and his defenders, Wallace was lost. But Lou Wallace's story is different, claiming that he was positioned according to the orders that had been delivered to him and his personal records list him waiting for orders while the battle was raging at Pittsburgh landing. Grant would eventually admit that he was not sure what orders Lou Wallace had actually received, but it's enough to say that contrary to the longstanding narrative, the division commander was not lost and he wasn't being timid. It seems most likely that the orders were unclear and miscommunicated, which is plausible enough in the middle of a chaotic and unexpected battle. But between Don Carlos Buell and Lou Wallace, when the sun came up on April 7th, the Confederacy would be down a commanding officer and the Union would be up nearly 30,000 men. Back at the Hornets Nest, General William H. L. Wallace survived the maturity of the day's fight. It wasn't until the line was finally starting to break that he took a bullet to the back of his head. The bullet broke through his skull and pushed all the way through his head until it came out through his left eye. He fell off his horse, landing head first on the ground where he stayed until some of his soldiers retrieved his body so that their general could receive a proper burial. But the next morning, Ann Wallace got a new surprise. As she tells the story, quote, on Monday morning, about 10 o'clock, as I was sitting beside a wounded man just brought in, Cyrus came to me with the word that will had been brought in after the rebels were put to flight and oh joy, he was breathing. I flew to the adjoining boat where he was. There on the narrow mattress on the floor in the middle of the cabin, he lay, his face was flushed, but he was breathing naturally, so like himself, save for that fearful wound in his temple. A ball had passed through his head in a manner that made it marvelous that he could still live. But the greatest joy was yet to come. Will recognized my voice at once and clasped my hand. I was thrilled and exclaimed, he knows me, he knows me. Others said that could not be, but Will's lips moved and with difficulty uttered yes. Words fell to tell how sweet it was. I believed my husband dead and he is still alive and knows me. He seemed so happy and satisfied to have me near him, but lay in calm self-control, even in death, conscious that his moments of life were continued only by his rest. Hope with us grew brighter until after periodical delirium, caused by excessive inflammation, he passed away and his pulse began to fail. Then he waved me away and said, we meet in heaven. They were the last words upon those loved lips and he faded away gently and peacefully and hopefully. End quote. Anne Wallace had come to Pittsburgh landing to visit her husband and she did indeed get to see him one last time before his death. I said early in the episode, battlefield tactics are not the story of the battle of Shiloh. It is stories like this that best illustrate one of the bloodiest days in US history. Like General Johnston, Wallace's death makes history because of his high rank and in part because of the records Anne Wallace left behind, which most battlefield deaths do not have. But Wallace was only one of thousands of soldiers who fell that day and the battle was not yet over. We will look at the second and final day of the battle of Shiloh 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 mesis.org slash supportHC. 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