Confederate High Command At Shiloh
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Major Thomas K. Hall
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Confederate High Command At Shiloh - Major Thomas K. Hall
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Text originally published in 1972 under the same title.
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THE CONFEDERATE HIGH COMMAND AT SHILOH
by
THOMAS K. HALL, MAJ, USA
B.S., Georgia College, Milledgeville, Georgia, 1983
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS 4
ABSTRACT 5
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 6
CHAPTER 1 — INTRODUCTION 7
Scope 8
Importance 8
Primary/Secondary Questions 9
Literature Review 10
CHAPTER 2 — JANUARY 18-MARCH 5, 1862 11
CHAPTER 3 — MARCH 5-APRIL 5, 1862 17
Special Order Number 8 19
The Council of War 23
CHAPTER 4 — APRIL 6, 1862, 4:55-11:30 A.M. 26
The Real Lost Opportunity 30
CHAPTER 5 — APRIL 6,1862, 11:30-5:30 P.M. 37
The Death of Albert Sidney Johnston 42
Collapse of The Hornet’s Nest 44
CHAPTER 6 — APRIL 6, 1862, 5:30 P.M.-APRIL 7, 1862, 2:30 A.M. 49
CHAPTER 7 — CONCLUSION 55
Why did Beauregard Change Johnston’s Plan and Why Did Johnston Allow It? 55
Why Did Braxton Bragg Waste So Much Time and Manpower Making Futile Frontal Assaults at the Hornet’s Nest? 55
Did Beauregard Throw Away Victory By Not Ordering One More Assault on the End of April? 56
Why Was Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Critical Intelligence Concerning Union Reinforcements Ignored? 56
Epilogue 56
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 58
APPENDIX — ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERATE ARMY 59
Books 62
Periodicals 62
Government Documents 62
Unpublished Interviews 63
Unpublished Paper 63
ABSTRACT
THE CONFEDERATE HIGH COMMAND AT SHILOH by MAJ Thomas K. Hall, USA.
This is a study of the actions of the senior Confederate commanders at the battle of Shiloh. The senior commander, General Albert Sidney Johnston and his second in command General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard did not come to a complete agreement on to how to fight the battle. This disconnect between the two generals was the main reason for the South’s failure to achieve victory.
The research method consisted of comparing the Official Records to other sources. These sources included books, biographies, telephone interviews, and one unpublished paper from the Shiloh National Military Park library. Official Records sometimes did not survive the test of scrutiny, particularly General Braxton Bragg’s assertion of actions at the close of April 6.
The most important lesson that a student of military history can learn from this study is that commanders at all levels must ensure that the commander’s intent is clearly understood. Failure to do so almost guarantees confusion up and down the chain of command which will, most likely, result in defeat.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Western Theater, Spring 1862
Route of Confederate Advance on Pittsburg Landing
Confederate Armies Advance on Federal Positions
Hornet’s Nest
Collapse of the Hornet’s Nest
Grant’s Last Line
CHAPTER 1 — INTRODUCTION
The commander’s intent is the single unifying focus for all subordinate elements.— Field Manual 100-5
This will be a study of the Confederate high command at the Battle of Shiloh. With the possible exception of Chickamauga, Shiloh was the most critical battle fought in the western theater. A Confederate victory would have stopped Union General Ulysses’ S. Grant’s drive in the west. Also, a Confederate victory would have likely ruined the careers of Grant and General William T. Sherman thus depriving the Union of those who would later prove to be their best commanders.
Shiloh resulted in the South’s attempt to defeat Grant before his forces could link up with General Don Carlos Buell’s forces, moving his down from Nashville, and capture the critical railroad juncture of Corinth, Mississippi. The Confederates, under Albert Sidney Johnston, numbered almost 44,000. Grant’s forces at Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee, only numbered around 40,000.{1} The South, for a change, enjoyed a slight numerical superiority going into a major battle. The Union was completely unaware that an attack was pending. They did not entrench, and worse, they camped with their backs to the Tennessee River. The Union was a perfect target. It should have been a great victory for the South.
It was anything but a victory. A confusing route of march from Corinth, Mississippi to Shiloh, a stubborn Union stand at what would be labeled the Hornet’s Nest,
and, most importantly of all, confusion in the highest levels of the Confederate command doomed the Southern cause.
The confusion centered on the two senior commanders on the Southern side. Albert Sidney Johnston, the overall commander, and his second in command, P. G. T. Beauregard worked at odds with each other from the time that Beauregard entered the western theater. Johnston specified an attack formation that divided the battlefield into sectors among his four corps. He stated in a memorandum dated, April 3, 1862, that his intent was to turn the Union left into the Owl Creek and away from its base of supplies.{2} The order that Beauregard penned gave the corps commanders a different attack formation and did not mention trying to turn the Union left.{3} The flawed order of battle was the main reason why the South failed at Shiloh. The two senior commanders were working towards different goals: Johnston wanted the main effort on the Confederate right; Beauregard spread the troops out all over the field with no particular main effort. It is safe to assume that any military strategist would agree that confusion in command is a formula for defeat.
When the South did attack on the morning of April 6th, confusion was the order of the day. Beauregard formed the attack with the four corps lined up behind each other. The result was units becoming intermingled with one another resulting in a complete breakdown of any semblance of command and control. commanders, from regiment all the way to division, wound up commanding whatever troops happened to be closest to them.
The South at Shiloh was its own worst