General Lew Wallace at Shiloh

On Feburary 29^th, 1868 Lew Wallace penned a letter to Ulysses S. Grant, Wallace's former commander and about to be elected President of the United States. Wallace opens his letter stating that he became aware of Grant's disquiet and disapproval of Wallace's performance at the battle of Shiloh but was counseled to withdraw his request for a court of inquiry, seeking instead to redress in person the smudge to his and his division's honor.

What happened? As the large encampment at Pittsburg Landing was surprised on the morning of April 6^th, 1862 and was in the process of being overrun by Albert Sidney Johnston's Army of Tennessee. Wallace, in temporary command of Grant's 6^th Division in place of an ailing General Smith, was encamped at Crump's Landing five miles as the crow flies from Pittsburg Landing was ordered by Grant personally to prepare to move at 8 am as he (Grant) made his way by paddlewheel up river from his HQ at Savannah. Grant, upon learning of the situation at Pittsuburg Landing sent a Captain Baxter with orders for Wallace's division to begin moving. Here is where the controversy starts. What was the order? By what route to take and by what result to achieve by moving?

Grant, in his memoirs, written after his two terms in office and while dying of throat cancer, had this to say about what his orders where:

Up to that time I had felt by no means certain that Crump's landing might not be the point of attack. On reaching the front, however, about eight A.M., I found that the attack on Pittsburg was unmistakable, and that nothing more than a small guard, to protect our transports and stores, was needed at Crump's. Captain Baxter, a quartermaster on my staff, was accordingly directed to go back and order General Wallace to march immediately to Pittsburg by the road nearest the river. Captain Baxter made a memorandum of this order. (chapter 14, paragraph 10)

Wallace, by virtue of letters in his possession of statements by his former subordinates and by his own statements tells a different tale in his letter to Grant:

…On the contrary, the order I received from your messenger was in writing, unsigned, and contained substantially the following instructions: "You will leave a force at Crump's Landing sufficient to guard the public property there; then march the rest of your division, and effect a junction with the right of the army; after which you will form your line of battle at right angles with the river, and act as circumstances dictate." (Major General Lew Wallace at Shiloh, Bay State Monthly magazine, vol 2 issue 6 1885)

The question becomes, whose memory is correct? Was it the second order, the order Grant dispatched after 1 pm to Wallace - the one that was recorded and signed by him, ordering Wallace to the Landing and not the right of the line? The first order, dispatched in a hurry and not signed and therefore not logged and delivered by Captain Baxter, could it have stated Grant's wish to re-enforce Sherman's pressed division on the right and thus either save it from further retreat or to fall upon the enemy's extended left flank in a coup de main? Wallace collected statements from several of his brigade commanders and those who met personally Captain Baxter as he made his way through the tangle of poor roads leading to Wallace's camps at Crump's.

Of all of the controversies surrounding the battle, this is probably the most well known and the one that is the most reported as Wallace becoming confused or lost on his way to joining the battle. I'll have more on this in further entries.