 Among the naval innovations pioneered by the Confederacy was the world's first combat submarine, the CSS H. L. Hunley, named after its primary designer, Horace Hunley, who died when the third version of the submarine sank during a test run. But the fourth version of the submarine survived long enough to actually sink a U.S. sloop of war in February of 1864. It was a suicide mission, essentially, as the Hunley sank along with the U.S. blockade ship. A century and a half later, on August 8, 2000, the Hunley was recovered. With the submarine finally on dry land once again, archaeologists found the skeletal remains of the eight crew members of the submarine, including the remains of its commander, Lieutenant George Dixon. In his pocket, they found a gold coin. The coin was bent, and on it was an inscription that read, quote, Shiloh, April 6, 1862, my life preserver, G.E.D., end quote. Nearly two years before he was killed, George Dixon was a sergeant at the Battle of Shiloh. His girlfriend had given him the gold piece before the war. During the Battle of Shiloh, Dixon took a bullet to the hip, but the bullet was deflected by the coin. The coin became bent, and the bullet ricocheted upwards and pierced Dixon's hip, giving him a far less severe injury than he otherwise would have suffered. Dixon believed the coin saved his life, so he had the words inscribed on it, and he carried it with him for the rest of the war, until he actually did die with the sinking of the Hunley. The coin is now in display along with the rest of the Hunley at the Warren Lash Conservation Center at Clemson University. I'm Chris Calton, and this is the Mises Institute podcast, Historical Controversies. We've just finished up our look at Grant's victories at Fort Henry and Donelson, as well as the Union victory in Arkansas during the Battle of Peeridge, but the next major battle would make all of those that came before it look like child's play. Some historians claim that the Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing, had more casualties in it than the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War put together. This does not seem to be accurate, but it isn't far from the truth. It hardly diminishes the significance of the Battle of Shiloh to acknowledge that here, in a single battle, you had more American casualties than not only any previous battle in American history, but in the previous war, the Mexican-American War, which was the war that most Americans at this point had in mind coming into the Civil War. So this would become the point of reference that other bloody battles would be compared to. This is the battle that opened the door for total war. In today's episode, we will look at the events that led up to the Battle of Shiloh. After the capture of Fort Henry and Donelson, Ulysses S. Grant was a hero in the North, but he wasn't beloved by everybody. On March 3rd, Grant's immediate superior, Henry Halleck, sent a telegram to the Union's General-in-Chief, George McClellan. Halleck had nothing but complaints about Grant. He wrote, quote, I have had no communication with General Grant for a week. He left his command without my authority and went to Nashville. His army seems as much demoralized by the victory at Fort Donelson as was that of the Army of the Potomac by the defeated Bull Run. It is hard to censure a successful general immediately after a victory, but I think he richly deserves it. Satisfied with his victory, he sits down and enjoys it without any regard to the future. I am worn out and tired with this neglect and inefficiency. But Charles Smith is almost the only officer equal to the emergency, end quote. I mentioned in the episodes on Fort Henry and Donelson that Halleck didn't trust Grant and wanted to replace him with Grant's former teacher in current subordinate General Charles Smith. Halleck started off skeptical of Grant, who had a reputation for being a drunk, but you would think that recent victories would have increased his opinion of Grant. The effect was the opposite. A few days after the telegram I just read, Halleck sent McClellan another one saying, quote, word has just reached me that since the taking of Fort Donelson, General Grant has resumed his former bad habits, end quote. The former bad habit, of course, was alcohol consumption. McClellan was more than familiar with Grant's former reputation as a drunk, and he wrote back to Halleck, quote, your dispatch of last evening received. The future's success of our cause demands that proceedings such as Grant should at once be checked. General's must observe discipline as well as private soldiers, do not hesitate to arrest him at once if the good of the service requires it, and place Charles Smith in command. You are at liberty to regard this as a positive order if it will smooth your way, end quote. Historians can debate why Halleck seemed so sad on replacing Grant. On the one hand, he had given Grant orders not to go to Nashville, but Grant had circumvented Halleck's orders by sending his chief of staff to Nashville in his stead, along with troops to occupy it. General Don Carlos Buell was already on his way to occupy Nashville, but he was moving slowly and Grant wanted to seize the important southern city as immediately as possible. Buell responded by complaining to Halleck that Grant insubordinately went to Nashville. So Halleck cared little for Grant's insubordinate tendencies, but historians also speculate that jealousy may have had something to do with Halleck's opinion of Grant. These kinds of motives are a lot more difficult to prove, but it's a reasonable enough possibility. Military promotion prior to the Civil War was tenure-based, but Grant already outranked his former teacher, the same man Halleck wanted to replace Grant with. The victory at Donaldson earned Grant a lot of glory in the Northern press, including the favor of President Lincoln. Grant was positioning himself as a rival to his superior officer. Whatever the true motivation behind Halleck's decision, he sent Grant an order telling him to remain at Fort Henry. Grant was to be removed from command and replaced by General Smith. Grant was devastated. He later wrote, quote, I was virtually under arrest and I had lost my command, end quote. But word got out that the famous unconditional surrender Grant had been removed from command. Lincoln at this time was still mourning the death of one of his sons, who had only died two weeks earlier. But when he learned that the only general who was willing to act had been removed, he sent Halleck an order to either have Grant court-martialed or to let him keep his command. Since all of the accusations against Grant were rumors and Lincoln the Lawyer likely had this in mind, Halleck could hardly have Grant court-martialed. So on March 13th, Halleck sent Grant another message saying, quote, You cannot be relieved from your command. There is no good reason for it. Instead of relieving you, I wish you as soon as your new army is in the field to assume the command and lead it on to new victories, end quote. I already talked about Grant's history of personal failure in the episodes on Fort's Henry and Donaldson. The relevant episode is titled The Emergence of Grant Part 1 for those who may not have listened to it. But the relevant tidbit is Grant's reputation as an alcoholic that I already mentioned in today's introduction. Grant would be accused of being an alcoholic throughout the war. In 1863, the New York Herald would attribute to Lincoln a quip in response to critics where the president asked what brand of whiskey Grant drank so he could send it to his other generals. Kind of like the quote about wanting God on his side, but he must have Kentucky. This quote is apocryphal, but famous nonetheless. But it doesn't matter. What does matter is that Grant's reputation for drinking would plague him for the rest of his life, even after the war when he became president. Sherman, however, had a different reputation that threatened his military career. I don't believe I've talked much about Sherman's history, but if you're a regular listener to the show, you might have noticed that Sherman just seems to be everywhere. In the Gold Rush episode early in the second season, Sherman was serving in the military in California. He was in St. Louis during the riots that led to martial law there. He was in Kentucky during its period of uncertainty as to whether or not it would secede. He was in the first battle of Bull Run as well. Do you love the guys or hate them or anything in between? The friendship formed between Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman proved to be very important through the course of the war. Both officers got off to a rough start at the Civil War, but they came to respect each other at Shiloh, and they supported each other in ways that may have dramatically altered the direction of the war, as we will see. So these men are worth talking about in brief leading up to the battle. Though I don't think I mentioned it, William Tecumseh Sherman was serving as Grant's quartermaster during the battles of Fort Henry and Donaldson as well. In fact, even though the two men were communicating by telegraph, this was the first instance of Sherman impressing Grant, who seemed to even anticipate some of Grant's needs for provisions and reinforcements. But like Grant, Sherman was a complicated man with a complicated history that doesn't always get discussed in general histories of the Civil War. He went to West Point at the age of 16 and was a better student than Grant would be. Grant started West Point at the age of 17 and he was two years younger than Sherman, so Grant came to the school during Sherman's last year. They must have had some interaction as Sherman later claims to have given Grant the nickname Uncle Sam Grant while they were at the school together, but it's unlikely that they knew each other very well. Sherman made a career out of the Army, but during the Mexican-American War he was stationed in California. During a gold rush, he left the Army and temporarily ran a bank in San Francisco, which failed. He moved back east and worked as a bill collector in Cincinnati. But it was actually John Floyd, the Confederate commander of Fort Donaldson, who got Sherman back and in the military life by giving Sherman a job as the superintendent of a new military academy that was being established in Louisiana. The school opened in 1860 though, so Sherman didn't keep the job long. Sherman might be a perfect example of the typical northern view on secession and slavery. Sherman was virulently anti-secession, believing, ironically, that if states were allowed to secede peacefully, it would lead to quote, unquote, eternal war. On the matter of secession, he was uncompromising. He said, quote, I believe in coercion and cannot comprehend how any government can exist unless it defend its integrity, end quote. But he did not want to abolish slavery. He said in the same letter as the previous quote, that national integrity and slavery were two different issues and they, quote, should be kept distinct, for otherwise it will gradually become a war of extermination without end, end quote. So these are interesting things to think about. If the states were allowed to secede, he believed it would result in endless war. So he proposed using war to prevent secession, but not to end slavery, which he believed would also result in an endless war. As for slavery, he had no real moral objection to it, regardless of whether or not ending it would result in war. In a letter to his foster brother, he wrote, quote, I would not abolish or modify slavery. Negroes and the great numbers that exist here must have necessity be slaves. All the congresses on earth cannot make the negro anything else but what he is. As to abolishing it in the south or turning loose four millions of slaves, I would have no hand in it, end quote. Obviously these views were not atypical at the time, and it's important for the sake of intellectual honesty to understand these figures in the context of the time they lived. So I'm not here to defend or condemn anybody, I just want to tell the history. But in the history of the Civil War, you do tend to see people often taking a one-sided view, romanticizing the figures they want to admire. Not everybody is guilty of this, of course, but it's something to be conscientious of. German was, at least, as racist as the rest of the north, if not marginally worse than average. Grant wasn't any better, and in fact, Grant was incredibly anti-Semitic. At the end of 1862, Grant even issued a general order to expel Jews from his district in the west. This isn't to say that people don't romanticize people like Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson as well, because many people certainly do. Lee's opposition to slavery is grossly overstated by some of his defenders. But the point is that most people in the Union and Confederate armies weren't all that far apart in their views on race and slavery, and it's impossible to understand the war or its major participants if you maintain the perspective that the war was fought over slavery rather than secession. And it's also intellectually dishonest to ignore the character flaws of the people you admire, while tirelessly focusing on the character flaws of people you despise, which is too often the case in discussions of the Civil War. So this is all to say that we should understand these men in the context of their time. That doesn't mean we condone what they believed, it just means that we want to understand history as fully as possible, and that's impossible to achieve when we're constantly dividing characters into the categories of heroes and villains. But I've taken a detour in the story here and I apologize for that. In February of 1861, Sherman decided he had to leave Louisiana. Before he left, he actually told one of his friends, a French instructor at the Academy, quote, You, you people of the South, believe there can be such a thing as peaceful secession. You don't know what you are doing. The country will be drenched in blood. You mistake the people of the North. They are a peaceable people, but an earnest people, and will fight too. And they are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it. The North can make a steam engine, a locomotive, or a railway car. Hardly a yard of cloth or shoes can you make. You are rushing to war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth, right at your doors. You are bound to fail, end quote. When the war broke out, Sherman rejoined the army as a colonel, largely due to the influence of his brother John, who was a U.S. senator at this point, and would later become most famous for his antitrust and silver purchase acts. But Sherman's trouble came when his mental health started to be called into question in the Northern press. After bull run, Sherman was transferred to the West, where he replaced Robert Anderson as commander of the Department of the Cumberland. The U.S. Secretary of War, Simon Cameron, came to ask him what he believed would be needed to suppress the rebellion in the Mississippi River Valley. At this point, the Union was still underestimating the scope of the war. So when Sherman said that it would take at least 200,000 Union soldiers to subdue the River Valley, Cameron thought Sherman was insane. And that's the word he used in his memo to Washington describing Sherman's recommendation, insane. Apparently this memo leaked to the press, and newspapers started publishing articles saying that the commander of the Cumberland Department had gone mad. As the story spread, they became increasingly sensationalized. But any attempt Sherman made to correct the narrative seemed to only confirm the reports of his insanity. After all, when a person desperately tries to argue that they're not crazy, don't they always kind of seem all that much more crazy? The story of Sherman's insanity may have been sparked ironically by the fact that he was one of the few realistic officers in the Army at the time. He was the only person that seemed to realize how difficult this war would be. But whether it was because of the stress of the accusations or something else, Sherman did start to verge on a nervous breakdown. In November of 1861, only a month after the report's questioning his sanity started to circulate, Sherman asked for a leave of absence. When he returned, he seemed to be in better mental health. And this is when he became Grant's quartermaster. But just like Grant would always be hounded with accusations of being a drunk, Sherman would always have to deal with questions about his mental stability. This continues today, in fact. There's a relatively recent book titled A First Rate Madness written by a psychologist named Nasir Chayemi, I'm probably horribly mispronouncing his name, that argues that mental illness is often connected to great leadership. I take a number of issues with the thesis of the book, not the least of which is that I disagree with the author's opinion of who actually qualifies as a great leader. But in the very first chapter, the author claims that Sherman's mental health issue, which the author diagnoses as manic depression, was the reason that he was able to think creatively about how to win the war. This was basically a really nice way of saying that mentally stable generals were unwilling to consider waging total war, like Sherman's march to the sea to fight the civil war. But in any case, it is interesting that Sherman's mental health is still the subject of curiosity today. But while Sherman and Grant seem to earn each other's respect on the battlefield, it's very likely that they empathized with each other over their respective accusations, and this may have strengthened their friendship as well, or at least compelled them to look past the negative bias that colored other people's opinions of their capability. Sherman once explained his friendship with Grant, quote, General Grant is a great general. I know him well. He stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk. And now, sir, we stand by each other, always, end quote. After the Battle of Shiloh, it would be Sherman who would stand by Grant. And in fact, Sherman would end up talking Grant out of resigning from the army, as we will see. I won't bore you with the details of the slow amassing of union troops around Pittsburgh Landing, but it was Sherman who first selected the spot. Pittsburgh Landing was never intended to be a site of battle. It was merely a place to organize the troops prior to an expedition further south toward Corinth. But the Confederates were concentrating at Corinth. And as they observed the concentration of troops at Pittsburgh Landing, they decided that they had to do something about them. The Confederacy was unhappy with the news that Fort's Henry and Donaldson had fallen. President Jefferson Davis received a no small amount of scorn, but the bulk of the criticism was levied at Albert Sidney Johnston. Several Confederate politicians called for Johnston's removal, but Davis stood by him. He had known Johnston for a long time, and he had the utmost respect for his military capabilities. If Sidney Johnston is not a general, Jefferson Davis said, I have none. Johnston didn't bother to defend himself to the public. On March 18th, he wrote a letter to President Davis explaining why. He wrote, quote, I observed silence because it seemed to me the best way to serve the cause in the country. The facts regarding Fort Donaldson were not fully known, discontent prevailed, and criticism or condemnation were more likely to augment than to cure the evil. At the time of his writing this, John Floyd and Gideon Pillow were under investigation for their actions at the Fort, which is what Johnston is alluding to here. I refrained, well knowing that heavy censures would fall upon me, but was convinced it was better to endure them for the present. What the people want is a battle and a victory, end quote. A victory in battle is what Johnston was determined to provide. After moving out of Kentucky and Tennessee, Johnston moved his troops to Corinth, Mississippi. Corinth was currently occupied by General Pierce Beauregard, who was still a Confederate hero following the victories at Fort Sumter and Bull Run. Beauregard's army consisted of about 25,000 men, and Johnston's was roughly 20,000. The Confederacy was, at this point, concentrating all of its forces in the west at Corinth. Even Earl Van Dorn, following the defeat at Peeridge, was on his way with the surviving 10,000 soldiers at his command. Though they wouldn't make it in time to participate in the Battle of Shiloh due to a lack of transport boats. Even before Johnston arrived, Beauregard was aching for a fight. In his reading of history, he learned about how in 1528, the Tsar of Russia had the world's largest bell melted down and turned into the world's largest cannon to defend the Kremlin. On March 8th, he issued his famous appeal, quote. More than once, a people fighting with an enemy less ruthless than yours, were imperiled rights not more dear and sacred than yours. For homes in a land not more worthy of resolute and unconquerable men than yours, and for interests of far less magnitude than you have now at stake, have not hesitated to melt and mold into cannons the previous bells surmounting their houses of God, which had called generations to prayer. The priesthood have ever sanctioned and consecrated the conversion in the hour of their nation's need, as one holy and acceptable in the sight of God. We want cannon as greatly as any people who ever, as history tells you, melted their church bells to supply them. And I, your general, entrusted with the command of the army embodied of your sons, your kinsmen, and your neighbors, do now call on you to send your plantation bells to the nearest railroad depot, subject to my order, to be melted into cannon for the defense of your plantations. Who will not cheerfully and promptly send me his bells under such circumstance?" End quote. Beauregard's appeal was energetically embraced. An FY rocket wrote a poem titled, Melt the Bells, that was published in southern newspapers. I'm not going to read it all, but here's a bit of it, quote. Melt the bells, melt the bells, still the tinkling on the plains and transmute the evening chimes into wars resounding rhymes that the invaders may be slain by the bells, end quote. And it went on like that for five more stanzas, but you get the idea. People were eagerly embracing any idea that they saw as contributing to the war. They wanted victory. When Johnston arrived at Corinth, he and Beauregard both agreed that they would have to attack Grant at Pittsburgh Landing. They got to work on the attack plans. The first thing they did was reorganize their army into four army corps. This was following the Napoleonic system of organization. You had 100 man companies and 10 companies formed a regiment. Four to six regiments formed a brigade. Three to four brigades formed a division. And three or more divisions formed a corps. They would move through the country roads towards Pittsburgh landing where they would form battle lines. There they would ambush the Union men with two of the divisions striking first while the other two divisions remained in reserve under the direction of Beauregard. On April 2nd Beauregard was dealing with the recovery of an operation on his throat that wasn't healing very well. But even as he was laid up in a sick bed, he insisted on staying apprised of any new intelligence. When he received a report that Union soldiers looked to be moving in to attack Memphis, west of Pittsburgh Landing, Beauregard scribbled a note for Johnston that said, quote, now is the moment to advance and strike the enemy at Pittsburgh Landing, end quote. Johnston was reluctant. Van Dorn's army still had not arrived and he didn't want to attack until they were available. So Johnston sought the advice of Braxton Bragg, one of his core commanders. Bragg endorsed Beauregard's recommendation to attack. Still, Johnston was worried. His troops were green and they could stand more training. But Bragg stood by his position. They knew that the army under Don Carlos Buell was on its way to reinforce Grant. The longer they waited, the more likely it would be that they would face the combined force of Grant and Buell. Van Dorn's army would not be worth waiting for if it meant they had to deal with Buell's army as well. Johnston agreed and he ordered preparations to march to Pittsburgh Landing by the next morning. But they were delayed by Leonidas Polk, another core commander, whose men were camping out in the streets of Corinth. Polk refused to move his men until he received written orders from General Johnston. Because his men were blocking the only streets that led to Pittsburgh Landing, none of the other division commanders could get their men through either. So Polk held up the entire operation. The Confederate army finally did move out at 3 AM on April 3rd. By the next day, most of the army was in place. But a straggling division in Braxton Bragg's core continued to hold up the attack. Johnston was growing frustrated with the lack of organization in his army. This is perfectly purile. He said, this is not war. By the time the lost division found their way to Pittsburgh Landing, the day was nearly through. The various delays cost them precious time that threatened to make it all the more likely that they would face reinforcements, which would be exactly what they would face before the battle was over. Beauregard at this point wanted to cancel the attack and fall back to Corinth. Reports had been coming in stating that Buell's army would be arriving soon. Beauregard gave his assessment to Johnston, but Johnston was determined to continue. He held an officer's meeting and told the generals to prepare his men to attack at sunrise. As the meeting ended, he turned to one of his staff officers and commented on the fears of union numbers. Johnston was undeterred, saying, quote, I would fight them if they were a million. The incredible and horrible battle of Shiloh was about to begin. We will continue the 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.