Posted on 02/07/2003 5:34:32 AM PST by SAMWolf
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War
Selected and edited by Ned Bradford
General Albert Sidney Johnston, in command of the Confederacy's armies west of the Alleghanies (except the Gulf Coast), was the very beau idol of a soldier. Physically imposing, stainless in character, with an enviable record in the cavalry of the old army, he was the South's acknowledged best before Shiloh.
But after Donelson fell, even he had no alternative but to leave Nashville to the Federals under Don Carlos Buell and retreat into Mississippi. Grant's army pushed into Tennessee and Johnston marched again to check him.
They met, somewhat to Grant's suprise, near Shiloh Church at Pittsburg Landing. In one of the great battles of the war, and with timely reinforcements from Buell, Grant turned an apparant Sunday defeat into a Monday victory, driving the Confederates back into Mississippi.
They retreated under Beauregard, for Johnston had been killed the first day, another serious blow to the hopes of the South.
In her inimitable diary, when she heard the news, Mrs. Mary Chestnut wrote, "There is grief enough for albert Sidney Johnston now. We begin to see waht we have lost. We were pushing them in the river when he was wounded. Without hiim there is no head to our western army."
This following excerpt was taken from:
"Regiments Broke at the first fire"
by Ulysses S. Grant, General, U.S.A.
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War
Selected and edited by Ned Bradford
The position of our troops made a continous line from Lick Creek, on the left, to Owl Creek, a branch of Snake Creek, on the right, facing nearly south, and possibly a little west. The water in all these streams was very high at the time, and contributed to protect our flanks. The enemy was compelled, therefore, to attak directly in front. This he did with great vigor, inflicting heavy losses on the National side, but suffering much heavier on his own.
The Confederate assaults were made with such disregard of losses on their own side, that our line of tents soon fell into their hands. The ground on which the battle was fought was undulating, heavily timbered, with scattered clearings, the woods giving some protection to the troops on both sides. There was also considerable underbrush. A number of attempts were made by the enemy to turn our right flank, where Sherman was posted, but every effort was repulsed with heavy loss. But the front attack was kept up so vigorously that, to prevent the success of these attempts to get on our flanks, the National troops were compelled several times to take positions to the rear, nearer Pittsburgh landing. When the firing ceased at night, the National line was all of a mile in rear of the position it had occupied in the morning.
In one of the backward moves, on the 6th, the division commanded by general Prentiss did not fall back with the others. This left his flanks exposed, and enabled the enemy to capture him, with about 2200 of his officers and men. General Badeau gives 4 o'clock of the 6th as about the time this capture took place. He may be right as to the time, but my recollection is that the hour was later. General Prentiss himself gave the hour as half-past five. I was with him, as I was with each of the division commanders that day, several times, and my recollection is that the last time I was with him was about half-past four, when his division was standing up firmly, and the general was as cool as if expecting victory.
Cheers
Lew Wallace was born April 10, 1827, in Brookville, Indiana and moved to Indianapolis in 1837 when his father was elected governor. He received very little formal education and left school at sixteen. He became a copyist in the county clerk’s office and studied law in his father’s law office. When the Mexican War broke out in 1846, Wallace organized an army of volunteers and served as first lieutenant of the 1st Indiana. After the war, he returned to Indianapolis and was admitted to the bar in 1849. He began practicing law and served two terms (1850 and 1852) as prosecuting attorney of Covington, Indiana. In 1853, he moved to Crawfordsville and was elected to the Indiana Senate in 1856. Governor Oliver P. Morton appointed Wallace state adjutant general when Fort Sumter was bombarded and, on April 25, 1861, colonel of the 11th Indiana, a three-month regiment which was re-enlisted in August for three years. Wallace served in West Virginia and advanced to brigadier general of volunteers on September 3, 1861. He took part in the capture of Fort Donelson and was made a major general to rank from March 21, 1862. Shortly after, at Shiloh, General U. S. Grant told Wallace to march his division from Crump’s Landing to the battlefield. Unfortunately, he got lost and arrived at the battlefield too late and could do no more than assist the following day. In 1863, he prevented the capture of Cincinnati and was awarded the command of the Middle Division and the 8th Army Corps in Baltimore. In July 1864, he helped defend Washington, D. C. against the forces of Jubal A. Early even though his troops were outnumbered by over 22,000 men. In November 1865, Wallace served on the court martial panels that tried men implicated in the assassination of President Lincoln as well as Henry Wirz, commander of the confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia. Following the war, Wallace spent several months in Mexico fighting against Maximilian and the French. He returned to Crawfordsville where he practiced law and ran unsuccessfully for Congress. In 1878, he assumed the governorship of New Mexico, a position he held until President Garfield appointed him to a four-year term as minister of Turkey. Lew Wallace is best known as an author, with the most famous of his works being Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ published in 1880. Wallace died in Crawfordsville on February 15, 1905, and was buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery
I recall the Lew Wallace study in Crawfordsville home of my alma mater Wabash College.
As governor of New Mexico, Wallace remarked, "Decisions based on experience elsewhere fail in New Mexico."
Twenty years after Ronald Reagan's call for SDI (March 1983) Kirtland is the focus of Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) tests.
A century after Wallace's death, the star of Ben Hur heads the National Rifle Association.
The bravery of the American fighters at Shiloh--in the face of buzzing death--lives on as Hornets converge on Hussein.
Godspeed swift victory and safe return to the finest fighting force on earth.
She and her children put up a monument to him in the old Carmel Presbyterian Church cemetery in rural Cherokee County, AL:
My ggg grandfather lost two sons as well. My gg grandmother died in childbirth in 1862, leaving one daughter (my great grandmother) alive out of five babies. We believe that ggg grandfather died of a broken heart.
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