Episode 120
The Fight for Shiloh: Confederate Fury and Union Resolve
🎙️
The Battle of Shiloh, a critical engagement in the American Civil War, is the focal point of this episode as Scott and Jen recount their exploration of the battlefield and the events that transpired on April 6 and 7, 1862. This episode begins with a vivid description of the calm before the storm, as Union troops were caught off guard by a surprise attack from Confederate forces. The podcast captures the intensity of the conflict, illustrating how the once peaceful landscape turned into a scene of chaos and carnage. Listeners are taken through the initial moments of the battle, where the Union soldiers, many still waking from sleep, faced a relentless assault that tested their resolve and preparedness.
As the battle raged on, the episode pays particular attention to the strategic decisions made by Union General Grant and the Confederate leadership. The Hornet's Nest emerges as a symbol of resistance, where Union soldiers fought valiantly to hold their ground against overwhelming odds. Scott and Jen highlight the duality of the battle's name—known as Shiloh by the Confederates and Pittsburgh Landing by the Union—reflecting the broader themes of perspective and storytelling in history. Their visit to the military park serves as a poignant reminder of the human cost of war, with discussions around the staggering number of casualties and the emotional weight of the battlefield.
Importantly, the podcast does not shy away from examining the implications of the battle for both sides. The arrival of reinforcements for the Union on the second day shifted the momentum and marked the beginning of a counteroffensive that would ultimately lead to a Union victory. This decisive moment not only preserved Grant's army but also set the stage for future conflicts in the war. Scott and Jen's engaging dialogue weaves together historical analysis, personal anecdotes from their visit, and reflections on the lessons learned from Shiloh, making it clear that this battle was not just a military engagement but a significant turning point that would resonate throughout the Civil War and beyond. The episode concludes with a call to remember the sacrifices made and the lessons learned from one of the bloodiest battles in American history.
🎥 Victory at Shiloh (from the battlefield)
📍Shiloh National Military Park
00:00 Shiloh
00:03 The Battle of Shiloh Begins
04:07 Introduction to Talk With History
04:26 Discussing the Significance of Shiloh
05:09 Union and Confederate Strategies
07:04 The Duality of Shiloh and Pittsburgh Landing
09:04 Grant and Sherman's Tactical Movements
12:00 Confederate Offensive and Union Defense
17:06 The Hornet's Nest: A Legendary Defense
18:20 The Hornet's Nest: Wallace's Stand
20:09 Confederate Exhaustion and Beauregard's Blunder
21:24 Union Reinforcements Arrive
22:08 Grant's Determination and the 6 AM Offensive
23:23 Sherman's Close Calls and Johnston's Death
25:04 Nathan Bedford Forrest's Daring Escape
27:53 The Aftermath of Shiloh
29:21 Reflecting on the Battle's Legacy
31:47 Shiloh Ends
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Transcript
The air, once filled with birdsong, now thundered with the roar of cannon fire and the cries of men.
Scott:The Battle of Shiloh had begun, and with it, a day that would forever change the course of the American Civil War.
Scott:Union forces under the command of Major Ulysses S.
Scott:Grant found themselves caught in a nightmare.
Scott:Their camp nestled near Shiloh.
Scott:Church had seemed secure.
Scott:Grant, battle hardened but perhaps overly confident, had not ordered the construction of defensive fortifications.
Scott:It was a decision that would haunt him as the day unfolded.
Scott:Like demons emerging from the mist, confederate soldiers materialized from the woods.
Scott:Led by the brilliant General Albert Sidney Johnston, the army of the Mississippi descended upon the unprepared Union troops with terrible fury.
Scott:The air filled with the acrid smell of gunpowder and metallic tang of blood, cannons booming, a relentless rain of death.
Scott:Across the woods, chaos reigned as blue clad soldiers scrambled for their weapons, many still wiping sleep from their eyes.
Scott:The initial confederate onslaught sent waves of panic through the Union lines.
Scott:Men who had dreamed of glory now faced the stark reality of war, and some broke ranks, fleeing in terror.
Scott:Yet amidst the mayhem, islands of resistance formed, none more formidable than the area that would come to be known as the hornets nest.
Scott:Here, the determined Union soldiers transformed a sunken road into a fortress, their resolve as unyielding as the oak trees that surrounded them.
Scott:As the sun climbed higher, so did the body count.
Scott:The ground, once green with spring growth, now ran red with the lifeblood of both north and southeast.
Scott:In a cruel twist of fate, Confederate General Johnston, the architect of this audacious assault, fell victim to a stray bullet.
Scott:As his lifeblood ebbed away on the battlefield, so, too did the initial momentum of the confederate attack.
Scott:General Pgt.
Scott:Beauregard assumed command, rallying the confederate forces for one final push.
Scott:The Union lines bent, threatening to break entirely.
Scott:Grant, his uniform caked with mud and gunpowder, moved tirelessly along the front, a rock amid the storm, firing his men to hold fast against the relentless grey tide.
Scott:As dusk fell on Shiloh, the battered Union forces found themselves pushed to the very edge of the Tennessee river.
Scott:The backs against the water, they faced a grim reality.
Scott:The Confederates, despite their losses, seemed poised for victory.
Scott: inking pocket of land as over: Scott:In the eerie calm that followed the days carnage, Grant surveyed the devastation, the moans of the wounded and dying filling the air, a haunting lullaby to the horrors of war.
Scott:The Union forces were bloodied, battered, and on the brink of defeat, their fate hung by a thread.
Scott:As night enveloped the battlefield, a crucial question lingered in the air, heavy as the smoke from spent gunpowder.
Scott:Would reinforcements arrive in time?
Scott:Or would dawn bring only the final crushing blow of a confederate victory?
Scott:The answers lay shrouded in the darkness, as uncertain as the future of Venetian itself.
Scott:The games you see, you won't let me be.
Scott:Welcome to talk with history.
Scott:I am your host, Scott, here with my wife and historian, Jen.
Jen:Hello.
Scott:On this podcast, we give you insights to our history inspired world travels YouTube channel journey and examine history through deeper conversations with the curious, the explorers, and the history lovers out there.
Scott:I just want to say up front, this was a much from the non history nerd here from new listeners.
Scott:Scott is the non history alert nerd.
Scott:Even though I'm the host, I enjoyed this battlefield more than I expected.
Scott:And learning about this battle, it was like a short, two day, intense battle.
Scott:A lot happened.
Scott:Momentum was swinging both ways.
Scott:All these big names, some made their name there, some lost their lives there.
Scott:It was one of the bloodiest battles.
Scott:A lot happened at Shiloh.
Scott:So let's get right into it.
Jen:Yeah.
Jen:I think Shiloh is not given a lot of credit for what it was in the civil war.
Jen:Shiloh is such a turning point in a lot of different ways.
Jen:Careers are made at Shiloh.
Jen:Careers are ended at Shiloh.
Jen:I would say the bulk of the war hinges on that whole battle.
Jen:The momentum will be gained for one side, loss for another, and just the footing of the position of it is going to be so important.
Scott:It really seemed to establish relatively early in the civil war.
Scott:Right.
Scott: It's: Scott:It really seemed to cement, obviously, union leadership, but then really remove some key confederate leadership that we'll talk about here in a little bit.
Jen:Yeah, but what else it did?
Jen:It did two things as much as it was.
Jen:It ends up being a Union victory.
Jen:It establishes two things that are just, I would say, not great for everybody.
Jen:It establishes that the Confederates are in this to the end.
Jen:Grant realizes at Shiloh, and he's able to really portray that to Lincoln that these guys are going to fight until the end.
Jen:This is not going to be an easy war.
Jen:This is not going to be, oh, we're just going to shut him down with a couple battles like they thought it was going to be.
Jen:We're just going to go down there and capture the railroad, and that'll be it.
Jen:They'll be like, okay, fine, you guys.
Jen:One, he realizes the fight in these southern men.
Jen:And it's the fight to the end.
Jen:And the country, I think, starts to realize with all the casualties at Shiloh that people are willing to die for their cause for both sides, and that we're in this for the long haul now.
Jen:And I think that realization happens across the board for the north and the south coming out of the battle of Shiloh.
Jen:And I want to talk about the duality of Shiloh because the north is called the Battle of Pittsburgh landing.
Jen:So there's a lot of duality you're going to see throughout the civil war.
Jen:In general, they're named different things depending on what side is telling the story.
Jen:And Shiloh is what the south refers to it.
Jen:It's the battle of Shiloh because there is a church there or a one room log cabin meeting place that they used as a church, sometimes called shiloh, which means peace in Hebrew, which sounds ironic, but Pittsburgh landing is what it's called for the north.
Jen:And the reason why it's called Pittsburgh Landing is that's the part of the Tennessee river where they offload all these troops.
Jen:So it's just a.
Jen:For the topography of it, it's a good location to offload troops from ships.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:And we show that Pittsburgh landing.
Scott:Right.
Scott:They still call it that area of it today, even though it's the.
Scott:Shiloh is the name of the battlefield.
Scott:We do a pretty good job of kind of showing that part of the Tennessee river or that part of the river in Pittsburgh Landing and really giving you a good kind of visualization of how ships would come in and offload it.
Jen:It still looks like it does today.
Jen:And if you ever traveled along the Tennessee river or the Mississippi, there are certain parts that are not as easy accessible for people, and there's parts that look like it's very accessible for people.
Jen:The whole area was picked by Shermandhe so he could offload all of the troops and they could camp out there.
Jen:And Sherman made his camp by Shiloh because it's an open field when you're there.
Jen:So this duality, you're going to see it in a couple different areas.
Jen:The sunken road is going to be referred to the hornet's Nest, sunken road by the north, Hornet's Nest by the south.
Jen:So when you're talking about things in the civil war, I want to remind people that sometimes you could be using two different terms but talking about the exact same thing.
Jen:So if someone's.
Jen:I want to talk about Pittsburgh landing, you're like, well, I want to talk about Shiloh.
Jen:Well, you're talking about the same thing.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:So now remind me how the forces ended up converging on this spot to begin with.
Jen: So, like you said, it's: Jen:This is the north penetrating the south.
Jen:Grant is not the commander of the union forces at this time, but he is a high ranking general and he is making his name, and he has just had two major victories in Tennessee.
Jen:He has taken, I think it was Fort Donaldson and Fort Henry and Nashville, Tennessee.
Jen: And so in March of: Jen:So Grant's working with Sherman.
Jen:They're coming down, they're bringing their troops.
Jen:They have about 40,000 troops.
Jen:And Grant stays a little further up the Tennessee river in a place called Savannah.
Jen:Tennessee can get confusing, but, and then everybody else, all the troops come down to Pittsburgh landing and Sherman camps out by Shiloh, because it's an easy place to offload these troops and they're heading on to.
Jen:Now, make sure I say it right, Scott.
Jen:Corinth.
Scott:No, it's Corinth.
Scott:The reason that Jen asked that question, if you haven't watched our video, we didn't realize it until after we got back from Shiloh.
Scott:And I was looking over the footage and she said it a few times, and I was looking at maps, and I was like, oh, my goodness.
Scott:She swapped, like the I and the n, so she kept saying Corinth, as in corn and then ith, when it's actually Corinth, as in, like corinthians, the book of the Bible.
Jen:Corinth.
Scott:So Corinth, Mississippi.
Jen:Corinth.
Jen:So Corinth is where they want to go, and it's south of Pittsburgh Landing.
Scott:And I believe strategically, that was, like, just a central location for railroads, for, obviously, the rivers, some rivers that were intersecting in that area.
Scott:So it was just a natural convergence of logistics, which is what a lot of wars are fought around.
Jen:Well, it's exactly what they're looking for, this strategic railroad crossing, because it's two major railroads that cross right there.
Jen:It's the mobile Ohio Railroad and the Memphis Charleston Railroad.
Jen:And all the logistics, think of food, think of ammunition, think of clothing, think of troops are going to travel along those railroad lines.
Jen:And so if you can cut off the railroad, especially to major areas where the south is penetrating, it's just a major victory.
Jen:So that's what they want.
Jen:So grant and Sherman are making their camp knowing that they're going to go on to Corinth.
Scott:Corinth.
Jen:Corinth.
Scott:Like Corinthians.
Jen:Like Corinthians I know pronunciation is not my strong suit, but they're told to wait because gonna be reinforced by troops.
Jen:So they're gonna be enforced by the army of the Ohio.
Jen:It's coming to meet them, about 16,000 troops.
Jen:So right now they have about 45.
Jen:They're waiting for about 16,000.
Jen:So they're told to wait.
Jen:Wait until you get those troops, and then you can go on and attack.
Jen:Now on the other side, on the south side, they realize that they're coming down, and they have high morale right now.
Jen:So we need to stop them.
Jen:And so you're gonna get Johnston, who is this?
Jen:He's considered, like, a great leader.
Jen:He's really good friends with Jefferson Davis.
Scott:He's, like one of the senior generals in the confederate army.
Jen:He is, like, one of the most senior generals, and he's gonna be the most senior person killed in the civil war, period.
Jen:He takes Beauregard and their troops, and they wanna attack him.
Jen:They wanna be on the offensive, because you always have the upper hand if you're on the offensive.
Jen:And so they.
Jen:They had actually planned to attack three days earlier.
Jen:But what's happening right now in April in Tennessee is a lot of rain.
Scott:If we are living in Tennessee right now, and that is rainy season here, rainy season.
Jen:And if you've never been in a southern rain before, oh, my gosh, you can't even see on the road.
Jen:Sometimes it is big, huge raindrops that come quickly, and it's penetrating.
Jen:And what happened is it all these men are really traveling by foot and by wagon, so the crown is just muddy and boggy, and you're by a river.
Jen:You can just imagine the sickness with the mosquitoes.
Jen:So you're dealing with a lot of those issues.
Jen:They wait a couple days for the rain to clear up.
Jen:Well, I think there's a couple things that are their downfall, but that waiting is one of them, because they wait until April 6, and they attack the morning of April 6.
Jen:Now, Sherman knows they're out there.
Jen:He doesn't know where.
Jen:He hears them.
Jen:They're firing random shots.
Scott:I think I read that there were some accounts from the union side that they knew that they were out there because the Confederates were, like, practicing their cannon fire or something like that.
Scott:But if so, that would lead one to believe that, yes, the forces are out there somewhere.
Scott:I may not know exactly where they are.
Scott:So that, like you said, it wasn't 100% a surprise.
Scott:But they weren't expecting them to attack.
Jen:Yeah, they were expecting the attack to happen.
Jen:In Corinth.
Jen:Is that right?
Jen:So, Sherman actually goes out early in the morning of April 6 to check out what they're doing.
Jen:He has his field glasses, binoculars up, and he's looking, and his aide gets shot and killed right beside him, and the field glasses get shot right out of his hand.
Jen: So this is about: Jen:on the 6th, and Grant, up in Savannah, which is up the river about 10 miles, hears it.
Scott:He hears the cannon fire.
Jen:He hears the cannon fire, so much so he stops eating breakfast.
Jen:He gets on his own steamer, the Tigris, and gets down to Pittsburgh, landing.
Scott:Within two to 3 hours.
Jen: Yeah, he's there by: Jen:which is a myth.
Jen:A myth that grant wasn't there, a myth that grant missed the first day, a myth that grant wasn't with his army when they were attacked.
Jen:That's not true.
Scott:And I remember reading, too, when we were there, that grant put a ton of trust in Sherman.
Scott:He trusted Sherman quite a bit.
Scott:And when he got down there, he was walking the lines and doing what a general should is making sure they're showing up here and there and kind of like instilling confidence in the men.
Scott:And then when he got down to Sherman, he basically saw that he was here, checked with them, and was like, great.
Scott:You got it.
Scott:And he went to the rest of his troops and let Sherman hold his part of the front.
Jen:I mean, they're west point grads.
Jen:Sherman will be the only one that day on the battlefield who's West Point grad besides grant.
Jen:And so they trust each other.
Jen:Plus, they have proven themselves both.
Jen:They have both been in battles together.
Jen:They have both proven their worth, proven that they fight, and they both deal with, let's say, propaganda in the news, which is no different than anybody else who's doing well from both sides.
Jen:People are jealous in the north of both of their success, and then people in the south are trying to discredit them.
Jen:So Grant's being called an alcoholic.
Jen:Sherman's being called a warmonger.
Jen:Right.
Jen:So both of them, and they're both laughing at each other about these lies about them.
Scott:Yeah, like they joke with each other about it.
Jen:Yeah, but they're both there to fight.
Jen: t the fighting starting about: Jen:a.
Jen:Lot of artillery, a lot of cannons have been brought in.
Jen:So if you go to the battle of Shiloh, you'll see a lot of cannons, which means that the south was there to fight and the north is surprised.
Jen:They get ready they get up on their horses and they start to engage.
Jen:But this first day, I want to remind people, it's pretty even.
Jen:I see a lot of information that'll always say, oh, it was 65,000 troops against 44,000 Confederates.
Jen:No, in the end, that's true on the second day.
Jen:On the second day.
Jen:On the first day, it's about 40,000 union and 44,000 Confederates.
Jen:And that's why the Confederates basically are kick butt.
Jen:That first day.
Scott:Yeah, I mean, basically, and I think you made this point in the video, was by the end of the first day that the scales were tipping on the side of the confederacy.
Scott:They had the momentum.
Jen:They have pushed them basically all the way back to Pittsburgh, landing to the river.
Jen:They have taken Shiloh.
Jen:They're sleeping in Sherman's camp that first night.
Jen:Now, the only saving grace for the union is the sunken road, the Hornets nest.
Jen:What they're both called is, like a little road.
Jen:They call it the sunken road.
Jen:Cause it was like a wagon road.
Jen:Yeah.
Scott:It's not like you hear that name and you would think, oh, they call it that because it was like this ditch.
Scott:It really wasn't.
Scott:It was basically a trail.
Jen:Yeah, it's basically a trail.
Jen: ave the Shiloh area until the: Jen:So it's about 30 years later.
Jen:So stories were embellished and changed, and they even said the first person who wrote about the sunken road in their journal wasn't even in a position to see it.
Scott:Oh, interesting.
Jen:So it's one of those legends that become fact.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:So now you mentioned the hornet's nest, and we talk a little bit about that in the video because the Hornet's nest was one of those things that the Confederates.
Scott:I mean, it took all day for them to take that position because Union forces at the Hornets nest, the reason they got that nickname from the south was because it was so difficult to defeat them.
Scott:And basically, like 12 hours of battle of Confederates trying to take that part of the line.
Scott:And then by the end of the day, I think it was, like, around 530.
Scott:There's a sign that had it.
Jen:Yep.
Jen:You get two really great leaders here.
Jen:I would say one Wallace.
Jen:Wallace is the guy.
Jen:Think of Wallace from Braveheart.
Scott:Yeah, he was Union.
Jen:He's Union.
Jen:He's the guy.
Jen:He's holding this hornet's nest.
Jen: They have about: Jen:And it's kind of like you.
Jen:As the Confederates are pushing the union back.
Jen:Think of them pushing around on the left and the right, and the middle is staying strong.
Jen:And that's what the hornet's nest looks like in Shiloh, is they're pushing the union, and they're making headway on the right.
Jen:That's where Sherman is really going to fall back.
Jen:They're making headway on the left.
Jen:However you're looking at, that's kind of what the river is.
Jen:And then around them as they kind of encircle, is this hornet's nest where Wallace is saying, and they call it the hornet's nest the south, because these guys won't give up, and they keep fighting.
Jen:Now, we take you there in the video.
Jen:The hornets nest is a very thick, wooden area, like a thicket.
Jen:And again, we got the rain, we got the fog.
Jen:We have artillery that's hitting.
Jen:So everything is foggy and hard to see.
Jen:But these trees are providing so much cover for these men where the Confederates are out in the open.
Jen:So every time the Confederates try to hit them, like, 200 men, they're always pushed back because the guys, the union can hide behind the trees, and so they're really holding their own.
Jen:Wallace will go and try to find a way to retreat, and Wallace is killed.
Jen:And then that's when prentice will take over, and he fights as well.
Jen: is they don't surrender until: Scott:I think you said on the video.
Scott:It basically gives time for the rest of the union to really reinforce themselves as they're falling back.
Jen:Yes, they reinforce themselves.
Jen:They fall back to Pittsburgh landing kind of today, where you would see where the cemetery is.
Jen:And Beauregard Johnston has been killed.
Jen:We'll talk about his death, but Johnston has been killed by here.
Jen:Beauregard has taken control, and he's basically exhausted.
Jen:His troops are exhausted.
Jen:And people say this is a blunder.
Jen:Beauregard, that first day, he should have kept going.
Jen:There's Grant going, where's anybody going?
Scott:He had him on his heels.
Jen:He had him on his heels.
Jen:He's not reinforced yet, but his troops have basically, the Confederates, I hate to admit it, they've stopped fighting.
Jen:They're exhausted.
Jen:They're hungry.
Jen:They start to pillage the camps that they've captured.
Jen:They go for more weapons.
Jen:They go for food.
Jen:They start to relax.
Jen:They were exhausted.
Jen:And so even if Beauregard could have kept fighting, his troops were done that day.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:So that was the night of April 6.
Scott:And then basically, that night, everybody just rested it.
Jen:Rested except for the union.
Jen:There's two, what they call temper clads.
Jen:So they're not ironclads.
Jen:They're union ships that are really, really thick wood.
Jen:They fire throughout the night onto the Confederates, and so they, I would say, keep it alive.
Scott:Keep the pressure a little bit.
Jen:Keep the pressure a little bit.
Scott:Now, overnight, the union does get their reinforcements.
Jen: and between midnight four and: Jen:he brings everyone on board, and that's additional.
Scott:What do you say?
Scott:15 to 20,000.
Jen:15,000 fresh troops for the union.
Jen:Now, Grant, that night, Grant has had a mishap.
Jen:He's fallen.
Jen:His horse has fallen on him and squished his leg and hurt his ankle.
Jen:So he went to a makeshift hospital tent that's by Pittsburgh landing, and he didn't want to stay in the tents anymore because they smelled the blood and people screaming.
Jen:So he walks outside and sits under a big tree.
Jen:If you go to Shiloh, there's a big kind of cannon that says, grant's headquarters.
Jen:The night of April 6.
Scott:Oh, interesting.
Jen:His headquarters was a tree.
Jen:He sits under this big oak tree.
Jen:Sherman comes to see him, and he goes, what a devil of a day.
Jen:And Grant will say, but we'll lick him tomorrow.
Scott:Oh, interesting.
Jen:Like he is in this fight.
Jen:And so Buell comes that day, and so Grant wants to have the offensive.
Jen:06:00 a.m.
Jen:offensive just like they came to them the day before.
Jen: The Union will attack at: Jen:the next morning, and it's a surprise for the Confederates because they're thinking that the unit is just as tired as they are.
Scott:But then all of a sudden, there's 15,000 fresh troops.
Jen:15,000.
Jen:Now, the Confederates had.
Jen:I think they had 600 fresh troops themselves, but nothing near as what Grant had gotten.
Jen:And so they're so able to push back and fight.
Jen:And Beauregard, I think it's by noon on the 7th, starts his retreat, and that's where they go, back to Corinth, and they retreat so much so that they say, confederates just ran all the way back.
Jen:We're done.
Jen:And Sherman and Grant don't go past where they were.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:Now, there was a couple of kind of larger than life historical figures we've talked about, one or two of them, some interesting stories about them, Sherman specifically, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but if I remember right, when we went there, he had his horse shot out from him, underneath him, three times in those two days?
Jen:Yeah, three different times.
Jen:And his field glasses, remember, were shot out of his hand the first day.
Jen:And his aide was killed right beside him.
Jen:So whoever was picking which one to shoot could have shot him.
Jen:So you get like these again.
Jen:These are moments, these turning points.
Jen:Sherman, his horse, is shot out from him multiple times.
Jen:He misses, his field glasses are shot from him.
Jen:But then you're going to get Johnston, who's killed.
Jen:Who's killed this high ranking Confederate who.
Jen:What happens is, he could have been saved.
Jen:He's shot in the leg where it severs an artery, but it's in his boots where they can't see it, so.
Scott:He couldn't feel it.
Jen:He's had nerve damage in that leg, so he can't really even feel it.
Jen:And he's been.
Jen:His uniform's been shot up a couple times, so he looks ragged anyway.
Jen:But people see the trail of blood, and it's within an hour, he bleeds out.
Scott:He basically just falls over on his horse.
Jen:They pull him off his horse, and he does.
Jen:They still can't even find the wound.
Scott:As he's dead because it's like, in his boot.
Jen:It's in his boot.
Jen:But they had a tourniquet.
Jen:A tourniquet could have saved his life, and it wasn't used.
Jen:So you get these good luck, bad luck things happening to high ranking people on either side.
Jen:And once Davis hears that Johnston has been killed, he even fears for the rest of the war, this is gonna be a real hit to the morale of the south.
Scott:Now, there was one other kind of well known historical figure that had a small part on the tail end of the second day, and that was Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Scott:So the story, if I remember right, about him, Washington, he was leading a small kind of squad of men or something like that, and they get encircled by union troops.
Scott:And so the Union troops are trying to capture him because he's sitting on his horse, and they can see he's an officer.
Scott:And he basically was pretty crazy.
Scott:Something like, he, like, charges these union soldiers that are coming at him, and he basically scoops one up and uses them as a human shield as he's riding through the rest of them to run off and escape.
Jen:Crazy story.
Jen:And if you've ever seen that crazy Nathan Bedford Forest statue that they used to have heading up to Nashville, this is not actually the day of the battle.
Jen:It's the day after.
Jen:It's April 8.
Scott:April 8.
Jen:It's called timber falls because it's even further back than the battlefield.
Jen:And american battlefield trust is actually trying to preserve this area right now.
Jen:So what happens is Sherman is riding out to see where the armies have gone.
Jen:Where have the Confederates gone to?
Jen:Where have they retreated to?
Jen:And timber Falls has become a makeshift hospital for the Confederates.
Jen:And Nathan Bedford forest, who has missed battle.
Jen:He wasn't in Shiloh.
Jen:He gets there that day.
Jen:That's why he's so fresh and ready to fight.
Jen:Sees the Confederates coming, and he wants to protect the men in the hospital.
Jen:So that's what he's doing.
Jen:He's riding out to protect those men to give him time.
Jen:Now, Sherman sees this.
Jen:Everyone's, like, battle worn and tired.
Jen:So Sherman sees this guy and how full of piss and vinegar he is, and they back off.
Jen:And they go back.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:Now, if the name Nathan Bedford Forest sounds familiar to you and you can't place, like, why do I know that name?
Scott:Well, it's because he's better known for some.
Scott:Some other stuff throughout history.
Jen:Yeah, he's actually the first episode we ever did on walk with history because he had a statue in Memphis.
Jen:When we first moved to Memphis, we were both Yankees who had no idea who Nathan Bedford Forrest even was, and he had this very prominent statue in Memphis, Tennessee.
Jen:So I made a video kind of explaining to my family and people who he was.
Jen:The statue was no longer there.
Jen:It has been removed.
Jen:But he was a confederate general.
Jen:He survives the civil war.
Jen:He goes on to be instrumental in the beginning of the Ku Klux Klan.
Scott:I think he was pretty well known for Fort Pillow.
Jen:Yes, he's very well known for Fort Pillow, and that's what the video is about.
Jen:Fort pillow, where african american troops were captured, Union troops were captured.
Scott:Yeah.
Scott:So there's all these larger than life historical figures at this battle.
Scott:That was one of the things that was just.
Scott:I was so pleasantly surprised by whether it's beauregard and Johnston and Grant and Sherman and Nathan Bedford Forest.
Scott:And I was like, I know all these names, and I am just the general.
Scott:I barely paid attention to history in high school person.
Scott:So it was just a fascinating kind of historical story for us to tell Ydev.
Jen:And it's a beautiful battlefield.
Scott:It's very well done.
Jen:The north has gettysburg.
Jen:The south has Shiloh.
Scott:It's beautiful.
Jen:Now, we haven't done Vicksburg.
Jen:We're going to Vicksburg tomorrow.
Jen:But Shiloh is beautiful.
Jen:It needs its due, because what you come out of Shiloh with is that famous saying from Lincoln.
Jen:Now, what happens at Shiloh is the casualties of Shiloh.
Jen:So I was just reading the human cost of Shiloh is 24% of all confederate soldiers present will die.
Jen:24% if you were present the first day as a union troop, 26% chance of dying.
Jen:If you were there the second day, it's 20% so.
Jen:And as a whole, anybody who fought in Shiloh, the total casualties was 21%.
Jen:This was the first time that had happened on american soil.
Jen:So both sides are just rung through the wringer in the press.
Jen:So Grant, even though this turns out, he's clenching a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Jen:He's run through the ringer for all the loss of life.
Jen:When you go to Shiloh, that's why there's mass pits of confederate dead.
Jen:There is a cemetery there now that wasn't there at the beginning.
Jen:They had Dugdez men up and put them into that cemetery.
Jen:There are two Confederates that found their way into that cemetery.
Jen:They're marked as well, if you ever want to go there.
Jen:But Lincoln is going to get such criticism from, again, the other Union generals, because Grant is not the head of the Union army as of yet.
Jen:Why are we allowing this man to have such control?
Jen:Why are we allowing Grant to have such control?
Jen:Look at how he just disregards human life and kills men.
Jen:And Lincoln's famous comeback is, I cannot spare this man.
Jen:He fights.
Jen:So he has been used to.
Jen:This is early in the war.
Jen:He's used to retreats.
Jen:He's used to people who don't fight.
Jen:And Grant fights, and you get unconditional surrender.
Scott:Grant, he's really the answer to the Robert E.
Scott:Lee Stonewall Jackson combo.
Scott:Right?
Scott:He really is.
Scott:And he's the first.
Scott:First one that gains notoriety for that.
Scott:Whereas on the confederate side, they had some very well established, very smart, very good military leadership on their side.
Jen:Yes.
Jen:So you're going to get this combo of Grant and Sherman coming out that are going to be the duality of Lee and Jackson.
Jen:And we know what eventually happens to Jackson.
Jen:So it's one of those turning point battles that was just so pinnacle to where the war was going to go.
Jen:And this is when we're going to get into the southern theater now.
Jen:Right.
Jen:The Union is going to push through into the south now, and we're going to be going to Vicksburg, and we'll talk more about that battle.
Jen:But it was just amazing to go to Shiloh.
Jen:It has a lot of legends.
Jen:Hopefully, we've talked about some of those and we've made some of them.
Jen:Right.
Jen:But it's one of those places that it really does remind me of.
Jen:Gettysburg yeah, it's very drivable.
Jen:They have markers everywhere that explain things and explain the markers to you.
Jen:They can.
Jen:They really tell you the difference between the first day and the second day, which is really great because you get such a great battle between these first, these two days.
Jen:And so it's a beautiful battlefield, and I just recommend anyone get out there and go to it if you get the chance, because for us, it was someplace we always wanted to go.
Jen:And now that we've been, I don't know why we didn't go sooner.
Scott:Yeah, it was amazing.
Scott:If you were in this general area of Tennessee, I think it was about, what, an hour and a half for us from Memphis towards Nashville.
Scott:It's absolutely worth taking a day.
Scott:You could probably spend a good part of a day there and go see Shiloh, even if you just do the driving tour and then, and then the museum.
Scott:It was.
Scott:It was really pretty incredible.
Scott: ,: Scott:But fate, it seemed, had other plans.
Scott:In the early hours of the morning, the unmistakable sound of steamboat whistles pierced the air.
Scott:It was the sound that filled the Union troops with renewed hope and the Confederate with dreadland.
Scott:Major General Don Carlos Buell's army of the Ohio had arrived, bringing with them fresh troops.
Scott:Grant, his determination unwavering despite the previous day's setbacks, wasted no time.
Scott:He quickly integrated Buell's forces into his battered lines and prepared for a counterattack.
Scott:The reinforcements were not just a numerical advantage.
Scott:They brought with them a surge of morale that electrified the Union ranks.
Scott:As the sun rose higher, illuminating the blood soaked fields of Shiloh, Grant unleashed his reinvigorated army.
Scott:The Union forces, now outnumbering the confederate foes, advanced with a ferocity that caught the southern troops off guard.
Scott:The tables had turned.
Scott:Now it was the Confederates who found themselves pushed back, struggling to maintain their cohesion in the face of the relentless Union assault.
Scott:The very ground they had conquered the day before was now slipping from their grasp.
Scott:Throughout the day, the battle raged with renewed intensity.
Scott:The Union troops, emboldened by their reinforcements, fought with a vigor that belied their exhaustion.
Scott:They reclaimed lost positions, pushing the confederate lines further and further back.
Scott:General Beauregard, recognizing the shifting tides of battle, made the difficult decision to withdraw.
Scott:By mid afternoon, he ordered a general retreat, pulling his battered forces back towards Corinth, Mississippi.
Scott:As the confederate army began its withdrawal, the full extent of the battle's toll became apparent.
Scott:The fields of Shiloh were a grim testament to the war's brutality.
Scott:Littered with bodies of over 23,000 dead, wounded, or missing soldiers from both sides.
Scott:The Battle of Shiloh had ended, but its impact would resonate throughout the rest of the war.
Scott:The Union victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, had preserved Grant's army and dealt a significant blow to the confederate hopes in the western theater.
Scott:As the sun set on April 7, the surviving soldiers of both armies grappled with the enormity of what they had experienced.
Scott:The battle had been a brutal awakening, dispelling romantic notions of war and revealing its true horrific nature.
Scott:For Grant, the victory was bittersweet.
Scott:The heavy casualties and the near disaster of the first day would haunt him, but the experience would shape him into the tenacious commander who would ultimately lead the Union to victory.
Scott:The road ahead remained long and bloody, but the Union's resolve, tested in the fires of Shiloh, had emerged stronger than ever.
Scott:This has been walk with history production.
Scott:Talk with History is created and hosted by me, Scott Benny.
Scott:Episode researched by Jennifer Benny.
Scott:Check out the show notes for links and references mentioned in this episode.
Scott:Talk with history is supported by our fans at thehistory roadtrip.com.
Scott:our eternal thanks to those providing funding to help keep us going.
Scott:Thank you to Doug McLibberty and Larry Myers.
Scott:Make sure you hit that follow button button in your podcast player and we'll talk to you next time.
Jen:Boom.
Scott:Boom, boom.
