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Siege of Petersburg Fan
| Joined: | Sun Apr 23rd, 2006 |
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| Posts: | 124 |
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Brett,
Thanks for the review. Answer me a question if you will...
Does the author examine at all whether ASJ gave PGT too much authority when it came to the battle plan at Shiloh? It's a question that I've always found intriguing. About 25 years ago, I sat down with the late George Reeves, former Superindedent of Shiloh, for several hours for an interview for an article I was writing and asked him that. He seemed to agree that ASJ gave up too much authority. Curious what this author thinks. BTW, if Reeves isn't a legend among the staff at Shiloh, he should be (Calcav, any input?)...
Yes he does. Apparently Johnston circulated an attack plan on April 4 that had the First through Third Corps attacking in a normal formation, with the Reserve Corps, naturally enough, in reserve. Apparently Beauregard either misunderstood Johnston or deliberately changed it on the march to the battlefield. The author says Johnston found out on the march but decided it was too late to change it. Roland says that Johnston at the very least knew about the unwieldy nature of the attack before it began, and that he bears the blame as the commanding General. Remember this book was first written in 1964, and I don't think it has been revised, so I'm sure others such as Larry Daniel and Wiley Sword pulled from more sources to give their versions. I read Daniel's book 10 years ago and I still haven't gotten around to reading Sword's. If anyone knows what they say, I'd be interested to hear it.