The hour had arrived--the man had not.
"Flushed with the victory of Forts Henry and Donelson," said the
envious Halleck in a dispatch to the war department, previous to
the battle, "the army under Grant at Pittsburg Landing was more
demoralized than the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous defeat
of Bull Run."
Soon after the battle the venerable Gen. Scott predicted that the
war would soon be ended--that thereafter there would be nothing but
guerrilla warfare at interior points. Gen. Grant himself in his
memoirs says that had the victory at Pittsburg Landing been followed
up and the army been kept intact the battles at Stone River,
Chattanooga and Chickamauga would not have been necessary.
Probably the battle of Pittsburg Landing was the most misunderstood
and most misrepresented of any battle occurring during the war. It
was charged that Grant was drunk; that he was far away from the
battleground when the attack was made, and was wholly unprepared to
meet the terrible onslaught of the enemy in the earlier stages of the
encounter. Gen. Beauregard is said to have stated on the morning
of the battle that before sundown he would water his horses in the
Tennessee river or in hell.
Pages:
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177