Conference smurf::civil_war

    I am also interested in this battle, and in the "human" side of
    Civil War history.  I think one of the reasons why "The Civil War"
    TV series was so popular was because it treated this aspect
    of the war with such thoroughness and empathy.
    
    Both my great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather fought at
    Shiloh, for the Confederacy.  They were Thomas Reeder and 
    Thomas Jefferson Reeder, aged 14 and 36 respectively, from
    a village near Tupelo, Mississippi.  
    
    Like many farmers, and sons of farmers, they heard of the 
    impending battle near the Tennessee border, and quickly went
    to join the action.
     
    But unlike so many others killed or lost there, they lived to
    pass down their memories and also a couple of fine photographs
    of them in their grey uniforms.
    
    Ingrid Adam
                       

    I have just returned from visiting this battlefield.  I'll check my
    information to see if it lists known dead/captured etc.
    
    I have visited many of the CW battlefields and found the one at Shiloh
    to be the most impressive in size and attempt to provide data on the
    battles that took place.
    
    Driving around in our car we couldn't help but wonder how difficult it
    would have been to move canon and horses through that turraine(sp). 
    They claim that there was the largest assembly of canon ever to rid
    the North from the Hornets Nest.  It must have been an awesome job.
    
    For those who have never visited this battlefield you have to want to
    go there to find it.  The route from Huntsville, Ala. wasn't very
    direct.

    
    	The Confederates in the battle had two major advantages - superior
    army structure and the advantage of surprise attack. The Union armies 
    had three advantages - more veteran troops, better artillery, and more
    men. Because of the way the battle was fought, each side lost some of
    its advantages - Beauregard's battle plans and Johnston's death hurt
    Confederate organization, and the element of surprise wore off; on
    the Union side, the heavy terrain restricted artillery use, and many
    of the more veteran Union troops were overrun by the Confederate
    surprise attack.
    	All thses factors point to a close battle, with the Confederates
    having their best chance to win before superior Union strength
    arrived to turn the battle against them.
    	All three of the armies at Shiloh - Grant's, Buell's and
    Johnston's - were mostly composed of green troops. A major part of
    only one, Grant's, had previously seen significant combat. Shiloh
    was the first major battle in the West and neither side used an
    organization of the kind employed later for most of the war.
    	The most significant fact about all the armies at Shiloh is that
    their regiments were big. Averaging well over 500 men, they were
    simply too large for the inexperienced commanders of the day to
    lead effectively. Later in the war most regiments averaged around
    400 men in battle, due to losses in battle and from disease. This
    number seems to have worked much more efficently than the 1,000
    men a regiment was supposed to have.
    	Another point to note is that batteries were not centralized into
    reserves or large battalions, but were dispersed among all the
    brigades. This practice was in line with period doctrine, and greatly
    limited the effectiveness of the artillery by making it harder to
    concentrate fire. Many batteries fought well defensively in their
    seperate positions during the battle, but the advantages of massed
    fire power were gained only twice: by Ruggles' Confederate line
    facing the Hornet's Nest, and by Grant's last line.
    	Cavalry on both sides suffered similarly from a lack of centralized
    organization. These shortcomings in artillery and cavalry organization,
    however, were not as deleteriuos at Shiloh as they might have been
    because of the way the woods and heavy terrain of the battlefield
    limited cavalry and artillery activity.
    	It is interesting to speculate what might have happened to the 
    Union command if Grant had fallen casuality instead of A.S. Johnston?
    
    
    					The Alabama Slammer

    Having walked ground across which Johnston attacked, it is
    baffling to me that a soldier of his experience and wisdom
    would have chosen such an attack.  It is true that he had
    nearly as many men as Grant, and had the Federals in a bind
    with their backs and flanks penned.  It is also true that
    the he had to attack the Federal armies in detail if he was
    to have any chance at all.
    
    Still, to think of deploying nearly 40,000 green troops on line
    across such thick wilderness and bog....
    
    As at Manassas, the behavior of all the troops at Shiloh was a
    crowning tribute to their courage and worthiness as soldiers.
    
    
    Wess

    
    	The robins had been chirping in the woods since dawn, and the trees
    were full of music, when suddenly a sound not so melodious broke in on
    the ears of the soldiers, an occasional shot from the picket line a
    mile beyond the camp....As the firing continued....wild birds in great
    numbers, rabbits in commotion, and numerous squirrels came flocking
    toward the Union lines as though they were being driven from the
    woods....
    	It was now almost six o'clock, and the neighboring infantry
    regiments showed tokens of alarm, and some of them began to form line
    of battle. By the time that hour actually came the firing had become
    quite heavy, a cannon shot now and then being heard in the midst of
    the musketry.
    	An officer said, "...The Rebels must be attacking our outposts."
    	The words were scarcely spoken when a straggling squad of men came
    running by in great excitement, their officers in vain trying to keep
    them in order. They shouted the news that the Confederates were making
    an attack on the picket line with a heavy force...
    	By this time the bugles sounded, "Fall in - mount!" and the cavarly
    was soon in line. The long roll was beaten among the infantry regiments
    in every direction. The men were just at breakfast, and many of them
    had to spring into the ranks in a hurry, without waiting to drink their
    coffee or eat their hardtack.
    
    	Jesse Bowman Young, "What a Boy Saw in the Army", NY, 1894.
    
    					The Alabama Slammer

     
    	One soldier from Tennessee later wrote: " I heard and read of
    battlefields, seen pictures of battlefields, of horses and men, of
    cannon and wagons, all jumbled together, while the ground was strewn
    with dead and dying and wounded, but I must confess that I never
    realized the 'pomp and circumstance' of the thing called glorious war
    until this.
    	Men were lying in every conceivable position; the dead dying with
    their eyes wide open, the wounded begging piteously for help, and some
    waving their hats and shouting us to go forward. 
    	It all seemed to me a dream; I seemed to be in a sort of haze, when
    siz, siz, siz, the minnie balls from the Yankee line began to whistle
    around our ears, and I thought of the Irishman when he said, 'Sure
    enough, those fellows are shooting bullets!'"
    
    	Sam R. Watkins, "Co. Aytch," A Side Show of the Big Show,
    	   1987; Broadfoot Publishing Co., Wilmington, NC.
    
    						The Alabama Slammer
    

    After 3 years of looking I finally got a copy of the letter my
    G-G-Grandfather wrote from Pittsburg Landing on March 20, 1862. He was
    with the Company D 40th Illinois Infantry.
    
    Most of the letter is typical subject matter, but a couple of
    subjects. 
    
    Sometime prior to March 20, company D had been scouting into
    Mississippi.
    
    The Union Army with as estimated 100,000 troops were convinced they had
    the South hemmed in and if the South didn't surrender then surely one
    battle would be all it would take.