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What happened at Shiloh uh that almost cost the North the victory was that Sherman and
complicity Grant and McPherson who was the engineer had not fortified their position
here you had uh a army of what forty thousand men you had a river on one side you had a
swamp on the other side and you had an opening to an entire army of forty thousand Confederates
forty five thousand Confederates only eighteen miles to your north from your your forward
most positions and uh I mean some of the Union officers uh realized this but it it Sherman
I think was still suffering from his accusation that he was uh uh a scarety cat and that he
was uh a crazy and that he had Sherman was determined he was going to prove that he was
brave and he was not going to fortify back then uh one theory was fortifications were
not uh useful and not helpful to an offensive army to an army on the attack it created a
certain fear in men if they wouldn't come out from behind the fortifications and fight
and uh that was not dispelled until really later on in the war in eighteen sixty four
eighteen sixty three eighteen sixty four but uh Sherman had left that army Sherman and
Grant left it completely exposed I mean I can't imagine it was like out of Macbeth uh
an entire Rebel army of forty five thousand men sneaked up on the Union army and got within
two miles of 'em before they realized they were there uh so certainly Grant was never
surprised again they didn't send out cavalry to scout no today we would use airplanes n
the second World War you might use airplanes and tanks they didn't send out cavalry to
scout they didn't send out pickets and they seemed to have and this is the amazing thing
to me well it's all amazing to me they didn't seem to have any conception that instead of
waiting for them at Corinth which as you say was only eighteen miles away the Confederates
might come marching down the road to uh as they say steal a march and attack them unexpectedly
that's true well the Confederates had not demonstrated in the west at that point they
were willing to fight you gotta go back and remember they had evacuated uh that uh Ft
Columbus uh right south of Cairo without a fight they had abandoned Ft. uh Henry almost
without a fight they fought at Ft. Donelson but then they surrendered quickly and they
moved their whole line back and so I think that Grant Sherman and the rest of those officers
were thinking you know we're not really going to get a fight out of these guys there going
to simply retreat and certainly they didn't expect to be attacked that's all a very very
good description I think of the reasons why a lot of people in the army of the Potomac
when Grant went east said he's never faced Bobby Lee before 'caus you now Bobby Lee Robert
E Lee was a horse of a whole different color in terms of uh aggression and audacity and
willing to sacifice life for gain and you know what he hoped would be gain and so on
and so forth uh okay in any event uh I can't remember Winston any similar case except the
Battle of the Bulge where Americans completely ignored signs that the enemy was about to
attack because you know as you say Sherman guys would come in and say they'd seen cavalry
they'd see pickets they'd seen scouts he'd say you're scaredy cats and uh at the Battle
of the Bulge they they thought they heard tanks engines rumbling the uh airplanes noticed
that the roads there was no snow on the roads which was a sign there had been engines running
over them and and uh and melting the snow those are the two great examples I think of
American in American history where they just ignored things that's a very good example
and uh an interesting comparison uh but it but see it Shiloh they were instructed by
Halleck and then by Grant in turn and by the other officers do not bring on a battle uh
until everybody there Shiloh they were waiting for General Buell who was marching from Nashville
not Nashville to Nash toward Nashville uh he was coming from Kentucky uh with another
army of twenty two thousand twenty four thousand men and they wanted then they could combine
these armies and they would have like seventy thousand men and would be invulnerable to
anything the Confederates could throw at them and so they were instructed don't bring on
a battle they didn't they didn't realize the Confederates had received no such instructions
and but they the people like Sherman had had instilled in their subordinates uh this notion
of don't bring on a battle so thoroughly that uh they were frightened to bring on a battle
because they would get in trouble and it so they ignored they they deluded themselves
essentially they they would send out until the very end they Sherman said well all that's
out there is a regiment of Confederates and some artillery turned out it was the whole
Confederate army they had them that much fooled you know that too has a comparison that's
very much like what Lee told Harry Heath and others before Gettysburg do not get involved
in a big battle you wanna go get shoes OK but don't get involved in a battle next thing
Lee knows it's the battle of Gettysburg you know easier said than done This excerpt is
brought to you by the Massachusetts School of Law